


True Family

by ectopermafrost



Category: Danny Phantom, Young Justice (Cartoon)
Genre: Crossover, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-05-16
Updated: 2017-11-12
Packaged: 2018-11-01 12:35:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 10
Words: 42,114
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10921920
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ectopermafrost/pseuds/ectopermafrost
Summary: The blame, the hate, the undesirable feeling of seclusion, it was just too much for him. So he left, attempting to try and escape the ever suffocating feeling of betrayal. But when he finally finds somewhere in which he can call home... will the miserable past seep into his life again? And will he have to return to the place in which he dreads?





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> Takes place after Season 2 of Young Justice (Wally/Kid Flash still alive). Takes place after The Ultimate Enemy and Phantom Planet, only twist is Pariah Dark Invasion left a small part of Amity Park in rubble (I wanted it to be at least a bit more realistic about the ghost invasion in which they actually caused some damage). Also I did originally write this on Fanfiction.net, but a friend told me to put it here.

CRASH!

A beautiful floral vase was now broken and shattered on the soft tan carpeted floor. The pieces of green, red, and pink scattered along the floor around and beneath the dining room table.

"S- sorry... It- it was an a-accident!" stuttered a raven haired teen with fearful icy-blue eyes.

A red haired woman was currently glaring daggers at the small lanky teen, eyes filled with rage and resentment. "Look at what you did! You destroyed the only vase I had left because of your recklessness! But that's all you ever you ever do, destroy things! I- Just go to your room and stay up there! I can't even look at you right now!"

The teenager quickly climbed up the stairs, desperate to get away from his furious mother, and made his way towards his bedroom.

' _This has been going on for two months now.._.' the boy thought as he opened the door to his room. ' _Ever since the Disastroid Incident, and that stupid ghost incident, the entire city of Amity Park has been blaming me for everything, even for the littlest of things._ ' He closed the door behind him and locked it. _'Has it really come to this? Does everyone really hate me? The ghosts, the useless government agencies, the damage to the city... are they all really my fault? Or is everyone just looking for someone to blame? To just point fingers at one person, so they could take their anger out on them instead of everything else?'_

He walked over to the mirror on the opposite of the room and stared at his reflection.

Icy blue eyes stared back at the boy. He moved the raven curtain out of his eyes, allowing him to see the pale skin that was hiding beneath it. As he scanned the mirror, he saw the reflection wearing a black baseball T-shirt, with a black, grey, and white short-sleeved flannel over it. The reflection also wore a pair of stormy grey jeans.

The teen sighed deeply as he turned away from the mirror which had offered no comfort and seemed to have only made his mood worse.

_'I am Daniel, Danny, Fenton and I ruined everything...'_

 

... TIME SKIP...

 

Danny stared at the white colored paper in his hands, as he slowly read it to himself.

**Everyone,**

**I have decided that it would probably best for both myself and for you to leave what was once known as my home. It seems that I have brought nothing but trouble and caused you nothing but misery. So please, as a last request, read this letter.**

**Mom &Dad:**

**I'm sorry for not being the son that you deserved, and to make it even worse, I was nothing more than your arch-enemy. You already have a perfect and wonderful daughter, so there's really no other reason why I should stay. The question I guess that will never be answered is, why? Why did you have to go and blame other people for your problems? Why did you always have to see me as a disappointment? Why could you only see me as a ghost? Why couldn't have you see all the good I've done for Amity Park and its people? Why?**

**Sam &Tucker:**

**You were once my friends- no- best friends, now I don't know what to think. Even before I got my powers, you were always there for me. We would laugh together, play together, and even cry together... So I just can't help but feel like it was probably never real. Maybe what happened was that I desperately wanted it to be real, that I thought it was real. My only guess is that all you ever saw me as was your own personal play thing, a joke. Maybe you felt that if you could be friends with a loser, a weirdo, a freak, you could feel normal in your own way. If only I had realized sooner what a TRUE friend was, I wouldn't have had to suffer from all the lies that I had been fed.**

**Jazz:**

**I knew you weren't there, but I wish you had been, to help me through this. I really needed you, I needed your support, your kind words, and just BEING there... I will miss you, and I will always remember when you were there for me. I hope you can finish college and be the wonderful psychiatrist you always wanted to be. I honestly have to admit that I just hope you can forgive me for leaving and that you'll take good care of Danielle for me. I love you both and I always will.**

**Please don't try to come and look for me. Because no matter where you look, or how hard you try, I'll make sure you'll never find me... This is the last you will ever hear from Daniel Fenton. And the last of Danny Phantom...**

**Goodbye.**

 

Danny looked away from the letter, and walked over to where his bag sat on the floor. He picked up his black and white duffel bag, and slung it across his back.

He walked over to the computer desk and got a piece of tape, then proceeded to the Ghost Portal. Danny taped the paper on the frame of the Portal, then took a deep shaky breath, and looked around the lab.

Danny then sighed and faced the portal. He then walked through the hazy whirl pool of green and black.


	2. Chapter 1

The cold sensation of the portal washed over Danny's body, as he exited the Ghost Zone. It felt as though he had plunged into cold water.

Something felt off and Danny's eyes widened as he realized his feet weren't touching the ground. He tumbled out of the portal with a small yelp; landing on the ground with a loud "oomph!".

 _'What happened to portals opening on the ground?!'_ the halfa thought angrily to himself.

Danny groaned as he slowly lifted himself off the ground.

As he got up he noticed it was nightfall. Apparently he had also landed on a concrete road. ' _No wonder that hurt.'_ Looking around, he noticed a forest to the right of him; below the grassy hill, on which the road laid on top of. To his left was a dirt road that led to an old factory. Half of the old factory was brick, while the rest being concrete. Green and brown vines grew along the brick walls, and the windows were shattered, faded and grimy. Metal pipes and pieces were sticking out of the concrete, creating a menacing and broken down scene/look.

Danny then realized that it was storming. Lightning crackled and thunder boomed overhead. ' _How could I've missed that?'_ Cold rain began to seep into Danny's clothes and raven hair became matted and pitch black (' _if that's even possible')._

_'Where am I?'_

**BAM! BOOM! "GET THEM!"**

Danny whipped his head towards the sudden explosions and yelling.

Suddenly, a man dressed in black and gray, landed in front of Danny. The man groaned in pain as Danny slowly began to back away with wide eyes.

 **BOOM!** Lightning shook the very air itself, and Danny lost his footing on the edge of the road.

He fell and began to roll down the steep hill. Sticks and rocks tore at his skin and clothes. A large rock then appeared and Danny tried to stop himself (forgetting about intangibility), only to fail miserably when he hit the rock, then becoming airborne. Danny, forgetting about his powers, didn't even think enough to try and transform. When Danny landed, he rolled on to a riverbank, finally coming to a stop, and lying on his back.

Danny slowly tried to get on his feet, but a sharp pain shot up his leg. He let out a small yelp, as sat back down. He looked at his leg and found the pant leg slightly torn. He hissed in pain as he slowly pulled his pant leg up. His leg had a large cut about six inches long. By the amount of blood, Danny could tell that the cut wasn't too deep, but deep enough for even his healing abilities to have a hard time. He quickly took a part of his torn flannel and tied it around his bleeding leg.

Danny sighed as he sat back and looked out at the river, simply trying to process everything that's happened, and what he should do next.

But his relaxation was short lived when distant voices and rustling interrupted the calming rain and thunder.

"But why-?"

"-because I think some of them escaped, and I saw someone come into the forest."

Danny innerly panicked, as he quickly got up, ignoring the pain in his leg, and started to run the opposite way.

The thunder seemed to grow louder and the lightning flashing brighter, as he tried to run through the thick forest.

"STOP!"

"THEY'RE GETTING AWAY!"

Danny ran faster, the pain in his leg almost becoming nonexistent. He zig-zagged through the forest, desperately trying to lose his pursuers.

After what seemed like hours, their voices eventually faded away, and even the sound of rain and thunder seemed to have died down.

Danny slowed down, now knowing his pursuers were a little ways behind him. The pain in his leg was now returning, causing Danny to now walk with a slight limp as he waited patiently for his advanced healing to kick in.

' _I should probably find shelter before it gets too dark. Then I can come up with a plan and find out what exactly I'm going to do while I'm here.'_

He quickly looked around and began to keep a look out for some sort of shelter.

Danny spotted an old willow tree and walked/limped over to it. The thick branches and leaves were almost touching the semi-dry ground, while drifting slightly in the wind. The ground was dry directly under the tree and very little rain fell through the leaves. Some of the tree's roots stuck out of the ground, creating a tangled, but cave-like, shelter.

Danny sat underneath the roots, and sighed in relief as he lay underneath them.

He closed his eyes and listened to the drumming of the falling rain and the now some-what calmed thunder. _'Way to start off a new life...'_

Danny heard the distant crunching of leaves and his eyes shot open, as he 'tuned in' his advanced hearing.

"Nightwing to Team; I think I may have found something..."

Danny quickly sat up and scooted back half way into the roots to try and hide himself. ' _It's a good thing I wore a black Baseball-T today...'_

More crunching of leaves and voices were heard shortly after and Danny listened in as they spoke to each other.

"What did you find Nightwing?" A girl's voice asked. ' _Who's Nightwing?'_

"First things first, did you find anything?" a male's voice replied.

"Yeah! We found this on the hill of the road!" A (what sounded like) young boy answered.

"Superboy and I did not find anything," another male said. _'Superboy? What kind of name is that?'_

"We didn't find anything either," another female answered.

"So what did you find?" the younger male voice asked.

"I think I found-"

"Wait," interrupted a deep voice, "I hear another heartbeat..."

_'Crap. Advanced hearing. Wait... how is that even possible?'_

"What do you mean Superboy?" the young voice asked.

"I mean I hear another heartbeat that isn't any of yours... except, it sounds strange..." 'Superboy' answered.

"'Strange'?" the first female asked.

"It's faint... almost as if the person is in a deep sleep or a coma...maybe even lower..." he answered.

 _'...Stupid ghost powers.'_ (Because Danny is half-ghost he usually has a low heart rate while in human form and is almost non-existent in his ghost form.)

"Can you locate the person?" the second female asked.

"It's over there," 'Nightwing' and 'Superboy' said in sync.

"That's what I was saying I found," 'Nightwing' then dropped back into a whisper, "I think there's a person under that willow tree over there..."

Every single muscle in his body was screaming to run, but if Danny tried to run, he would surely be caught. Plus the fact that Danny would probably pass out from the amount of blood loss and exhaustion. He may have been able to stay up to find shelter, but the ghost he encountered in the Ghost Zone had definitely took a toll on him. And the fact that he had injured his leg wasn't helping either.

Footsteps were heard and Danny concentrated on trying to turn invisible but stopped himself, finally realizing how low his energy reserves were. He saw shadowed figures emerge from the part of the forest in front of him as he tried to keep himself calm.

Lightning flashed and Danny saw a total of six figures coming towards the willow tree. Another flash later and the group was now standing right in front of the tree.

One of the figures cracked what-looked-like a bright blue and white glow stick and threw it down next to them.

The figure that threw the glow stick down was now revealed to be wearing a black unitard, black shoulder pads, boots and gloves. On his chest was a blue bird with its wings spread out and his abdomen area was colored in a light grey, and also wore a black utility belt. He had medium (past his ears) black hair and wore a black mask over his eyes.

The male took a couple of steps towards Danny, but stopped and said, "Come on out!"

Danny remained frozen and didn't dare to speak, when an idea suddenly came to mind. He started to growl softly (much like that of his ghostly friend, Wulf), hoping that the group would just leave thinking that he was an animal simply taking shelter from the rain.

Unfortunately, the group was smarter than he had inticipated.

"We know you're in there! So stop trying to fool us with recordings and come on out!" the male demanded.

"It's not them..." the second female's voice said with surprise clear in her voice.

She had on a midriff-baring costume with various shades of green and a mask extending from the hairline to the cheekbones. She also wore a sleeveless top with a stylized arrow tip on the front, fingerless gloves, pants with black knee pads, and black combat boots. She had blonde hair and dark grey eyes. Finally, she had both a bow and a quiver of arrows on her back.

"Hey! Nightwing! It's just a kid!" the young male's voice said with shock.

The young boy was definitely a strange one. In fact, if the boy had only glowed, Danny would've mistaken him for a ghost. He had pale green skin, and green eyes and dark green hair. He had dark green fur and a monkey tail. He wore a red and white single piece 'uniform'.

"What are you doing here? Where did you come from?" 'Nightwing' asked Danny sternly.

Danny tried to force himself to sound calm and monotone while saying, "Playing 20 questions are we? Look... I'm not a threat, if that's what you're worried about. As to where I come from, let's just say… I'm not exactly from 'around these parts'."

'Nightwing' seemed to be trying to process this information, when the green boy began to get closer to Danny, but stopped when he saw Danny back up further into the root's cave-like shelter.

"Hey there! My name's Beast Boy! What's your name?!" 'Beast Boy' asked excitedly.

Danny stared in awe at the little green boy as he processed what the boy just asked _. 'Is he serious?'_ "Danny..." he said in a low voice.

"Well then Danny it's nice to meet ya!" Beast Boy exclaimed happily.

"Danny, what is your last name?" Nightwing asked.

Danny stiffened and it _didn't_ go unnoticed by the group.

"I'm afraid I can't tell you..." Danny barely whispered.

"Why not?"

Danny remained silent and another male decided to step up.

He had light blonde hair, brown skin and pale green eyes. He wore a red and blue swimsuit, with arms and feet exposed and dorsal-like fins were attached to the lower calves. He also had black eel-like tattoos that ran along his arms.

"We do not wish to harm you, we only wish to help you," he said with a gentle voice.

Danny thought it over, but in the end shook his head and said, "I'm sorry but I can't tell you who I am for multiple reasons."

The last male stepped up and asked, "Can't or won't?"

Danny did his best to deadpan, _**"Won't…"**_ Danny cursed himself silently as he realized that he used a little bit of his 'ghost voice'.

( **A/N: Danny's ghost voice, his voice echo's in ghost form', will be in Italics and Bold**.)

Both the male and Danny's eyes locked, and Danny froze in place. _'Is that fear in his eyes? No… it seems more like…confusion and... something else.'_

He had short black hair and blue eyes. He wore a black long-sleeved shirt, with a S-Shield on his chest, and had on dark blue fatigue pants tucked into dark-brown combat boots with a large buckled-belt.

Nightwing seemed to notice and asked, "Superboy, are you alright?"

'Superboy' broke away from the long stare and turned to Nightwing. "I-I don't know…there seems to be something…off about him… but I can't figure out what."

Nightwing seemed to have raised an eyebrow at that statement, but then shook his head and turned to one of the girls. One nodded her head and turned to Danny with a smile.

"Danny? Would you mind coming on out so we can take you home?" the sound of the first female voice asked.

She also had green skin, but she had amber eyes, not green ones, and she had short red hair. She wore a long-sleeved black suit with a red X across her chest, black shoes, a navy blue cape, and black gloves.

The girl stepped closer, but also stopped when she saw Danny back up. She smiled and said gently, "My name is Miss Martian, but my friends call me Megan."

Danny remained silent and she sighed as she said softly, "Listen, we just want to help you, okay? So why don't you come on out from under there? If it makes you feel any better, we're all heroes here…"

Danny thought about her words and tried to find any sort of deeper meaning, but couldn't find anything. _' No way I can tell if their telling the truth…'_

"Can you prove it?"

Their eyes widened at that question and Nightwing answered with confidence, "Robin is the protégé of Batman of Gotham City, Aqualad is the protege of Aquaman, Miss Martian is the protégé of Martian Manhunter, Artemis is the protégé of Green Arrow, and Superboy is the protégé of Superman."

_'Who?'_

"Who are they supposed to be?"

Everyone eyes' widened, but only Miss Martian dared to ask, "You mean… you've never heard of the Justice League?"

Danny shook his head, now even more confused than before.

Nightwing turned to his group and Danny could've sworn they seemed to be reading each other's mind. ' _But that can't be right... unless there's a telepath?'_

Danny's breathing picked up as Nightwing turned around and he slowly walked closer to him. He backed up all the way up against the tree trunk inside his cave-like shelter.

"I'm sorry but you need to come with us for questioning," Nightwing said calmly.

Nightwing was getting closer by the second and Danny finally snapped.

"LEAVE ME ALONE!" He exclaimed, but by doing this Danny unleashed all of his built up panic and fustration. A dome of ectoplasm surrounded Danny and expanded outwards, the dome breaking the cave-like roots. It surrounded the entire tree and stayed there, causing all the heroes to quickly back up away from the tree.

"What the hell?!" Nightwing exclaimed.

Danny stared in surprise at the dome. _'Since when could I do that on low energy reserves?'_ It was swirling with neon and forest green and seemed to have also surprised and awed the heroes. After what seemed like minutes, the dome flickered and seemed to shatter into pieces as it disappeared.

Danny continued to stare at the empty space in front of him as his shock quickly turned into exhaustion, all the day's events and loss of adrenaline catching up to him. That's when he felt a presence near him. His head shot up as he looked at the looming figure of Superboy. Instinct immediately took control and Danny rolled to the side and swung his body into the air, and doing a backwards flip, landed in a crouched fighting position.

The group looked surprised, Superboy narrowed his eyes, and Nightwing looked suspicious and looked as if he were about to spring into action, but Superboy put his arm out blocking his path.

Nightwing sent a questioning glance at Superboy.

"I smell blood… a lot of it…" Superboy said pointedly at Danny.

Nightwing's eyes widened and he calmed immediately. "Look, Danny-" he said walking with his hands up in a peaceful gesture. "-we just want to help you, alright?" Nightwing seemed to steal a glance in another direction, but quickly locked eyes back with Danny.

Danny narrowed his eyes at this behavior, his mind too exhausted to have tried to figure it out, and turned around too late when he found himself trapped from behind by the blonde male's grip.

"Let go of me!" he exclaimed fearfully as he tried to struggle against the strong grip, his body slowly becoming weaker as he tried. But the grip only tightened the more Danny struggled, eventually he stopped, knowing fully well he should be saving his energy.

Nightwing walked up and stopped a few feet in front of them, observing Danny's leg. His eyes narrowed as he asked, "How did that happen?"

Danny narrowed his eyes and said back, "I was on the road when a guy, which came from nowhere, landed in front of me. I was startled and I slipped down the hill, eventually I rolled to a stop by the riverbank, but my leg got caught during the fall by something sharp."

"Why did you run?" Miss Martian asked.

Danny rolled his eyes and answered, "I was in the forest, alone, and when I heard strange voices and rustling, did you really expect me to stay in one place?"

Miss Martian looked away in embarrassment, and Danny instantly felt guilty, he sighed as he apologized tiredly, "Sorry... it's just been a rough couple of days for me..." Miss Martain smiled sadly at him saying it was alright. Nightwing turned his attention to her and said, "Call the ship." Then turned his attention to the blonde male holding Danny and nodded.

The male slowly let go of him, and Danny rubbed his arms where the male's grip had left red marks. "We're going to take you to our base so you can get medical attention; from there we'll contact your parents."

Danny went deadpan and said, "I'm afraid that's not going to be possible…"

Nightwing raised an eyebrow and asked, "And why is that?"

"Because I-" Danny suddenly felt a wave of nausea and dizziness slap him and he collapsed onto the ground, breathing heavily.

"Hey kid! Are you alright!?" he heard someone ask.

Danny slowly began to drift off and all that was heard was the engine of what sounded like a ship.

...

"Oh my gosh! Is he alright?!" Artemis exclaimed.

Aqualad and Nightwing were kneeled next to the mysterious boy, 'Danny'.

"He's lost some blood, so he could've either passed out from that or exhaustion, either way we need to bring him back to base," Nightwing ordered.

"I'll carry him," Superboy said. He carefully picked the boy up and carried him to the now landing (Miss Martian's) ship.

But the only question going through the everyone's mind was, _'Who is this kid?'_


	3. Chapter 2

*Everyone's POV* (The Team's)

The team arrived back at base and man were they relieved to be back.

     Nightwing expected the night to go by smoothly, and to get the mission done quickly and correctly. But when Nightwing found out that someone had gone into the forest, he automatically knew that something as up. So it wasn't much of a surprise to him that they had happened to find a kid, that was injured and was a long way from home. To be honest, nothing had surprised him, to badly, that evening.

Everyone climbed out of Miss Martian's red ship and made their way to the debriefing room. At least until- "Um guys?"

The Team looked back at Superboy and Beast Boy, to find Superboy still carrying the mystery boy, Danny.

"Oh right," Nightwing stated calmly, even though he mentally kicked himself for forgetting about a _bleeding_ kid. "I'll take him to the infirmary and-"

"NO!"

' _Forget what I just said... I'm officially whelmed..._ ' Nightwing thought.

Everyone had shocked faces and wide eyes, as they looked up at Superboy. But, even he himself looked surprised he had snapped at them.

"I-I mean... It's alright, I'll take him to the infirmary," Superboy said trying to correct himself.

Nightwing raised his eyebrow at this, while Superboy just walked away towards the infirmary, without even receiving an answer.

Nightwing brushed it off thinking that S.B. must just be having a rough night.

' _But then again he's been acting strange ever since we met that kid...'_

"Mission Report."

Nightwing was snapped out of his thoughts as Batman stepped through the Zeta Portal. He had the usual on, the black and gray suit, black gloves, black boots, and his Bat-mask, and of course, the never wavering cowl he always has on.

"Mission was a success. Criminals were stopped and caught," Nightwing reported.

"We also encountered another person, neither foe nor ally," Aqualad added.

Batman's gaze hardened into a glare, "Explain."

Nightwing sighed and said, "We were looking for stragglers, when we encountered a young boy about the age of 14, alone in the forest. When we offered to help him home, he refused. So we kept trying to get him to come with us but ended up having to try to forcefully bring him with us. At least until..."

Nightwing hesitated, but Batman simply waited.

"Superboy had smelled blood and a lot of it. We found out that he had cut his leg, not too badly, but badly enough for medical attention, and it apparently happened when he had slipped and fallen from the nearby road."

Batman seemed to think about this and asked, "Where did you take him?"

Nightwing's eyes widened as he stumbled for words and Aqualad ended up answering (very awkwardly), " _Here_..."

Batman's eyes narrowed at Nightwing, "You brought a _civilian_ to Mount Justice?"

Nightwing straightened and quickly began to explain, "It's not like that. The boy- was- he was different."

Batman kept his eyes narrowed.

"Batman, when he asked who we were and we told him the League's proteges', he claimed he's never even heard of the League, nor any of the heroes."

Batman's glare went away and as he processed this new information.

"Also," everyone turned to look at Artemis, "he made that strange energy dome."

Batman looked back at Nightwing and the latter pulled up the small video he was able to record. When the 14-second video ended, Batman turned his attention back to the Team. "Is there anything else that seemed strange or unusual?"

Miss Martian stepped up and said in a low voice, "I wasn't able to sense his mind..." Batman seemed to stiffen slightly at that statement, if fact, everyone did. "Anything else?" he asked. Megan shook her head 'no'.

"Where is he now?" Batman asked.

Beast Boy seemed to feel uncomfortable when he answered, "Superboy took him to the Infirmary."

Batman actually raised an eyebrow at that answer, "Superboy?"

Everyone nodded and they as well had looks of bewilderment. Beast Boy decided to speak up, "In fact, SB _insisted_ that he took him to the infirmary..."

Batman put his gloved hand to his ear and spoke into his commlink, "Batman to Superman; I need you to come to Mount Justice."

" _When?"_

"Immediately."

*Conner POV*

' _What is wrong with me?'_ Superboy (Conner) thought to himself.

The mystery boy known as 'Danny', was now laying on the bed in the Infirmary, soundly asleep. While Conner himself was seated next to him in a chair.

     Danny's messy raven hair was still slightly wet and bits of hair was matted to his forehead. He had some dirt left on his face and on his black baseball T, probably from when he was running earlier. Danny had a small built body but still was very capable of athletic ability (as he had shown earlier as well). All-in-all, he basically almost looked like a small, kid version of Conner.

As Conner sat there, he began to wonder why he froze earlier. He had stopped and froze when Danny had looked at him. ' _But why?'_ Then he remembered what he had felt when he was frozen, confusion and something else. _'But what though?_ '

"Superboy."

Superboy jumped at the sound of the voice and turned to find Batman staring at him with a deadpanned look.

"Conner are you alright? It's like you didn't even hear us come in." Superman then stepped fully inside the Infirmary.

"Oh yeah, sorry... everything's alright, just deep in thought, that's all," Conner explained.

Superman raised an eyebrow, then turned towards Batman. The latter simply ignored him and walked over to the bed asking, "Is this him?" While Superman walked to the other side of the bed.

Conner blinked his surprise away and turned towards the bed answering, "Yes. He told us his name has Danny."

"Any last name?"

"He didn't say..."

As Batman examined him, Superman said, "His heart beat is extremely low, almost coma-like or lower..."

Batman grabbed a pair of stethoscopes, put them on and listened. After a few moments, he took them off, "You're right."

Confusion was clear on Superman's face as he turned to Conner, "Was he like this when you found him?"

Conner nodded his head, "Yeah, his heartbeat was almost just like this when we found him, only, of course, it was slightly faster due to him being awake."

Batman walked over to Danny's injured leg and began to undo the torn flannel. While he was doing so, Superman also walked over to observe Danny's injury.

"By the way, this was tied, I'd suspect he's gotten into these sorts of situations more than once..."

Conner's eyes widened, while Superman just looked intrigued.

Batman continued to observe the wound until finally coming to a conclusion, "He seems to have advanced healing, he'll be- Wait... what's that?"

Batman grabbed a cotton ball and gently patted the large cut. When he pulled it away, a mixture of red and green blood was revealed.

"What is that?" Superman asked.

Conner watched as Batman walked over to the nearby electronic microscope. A red beam of light scanned the cotton ball and began to search for matches. After a couple of seconds, the computer announced, "52% human blood, 48% unknown."

Batman narrowed his eyes at that.

Conner and Superman stepped towards the computer, "Unknown?" Superman asked.

Black gloves ran over the keyboard, furiously typing away. "It seems that whatever is in his blood, isn't in the League's database..."

"But how can that be? We have pretty much have every single species and alien race on file," Superman stated.

"Apparently, whoever this kid is, could've either, have hidden himself from the outside world to keep a low profile, that would help explain why he doesn't know about the League. Or..."

"'Or'?"

Batman turned to face Conner and Superman (mainly Superman). "Or he isn't from any nearby galaxies."

Conner looked at Superman as he thought about those possibilities. It seemed Superman was also in deep thought about this.

"That could be a possibility, but then the question is why is he on Earth?"

Batman pulled out two small tubes and grabbed a needle from one of the many drawers. He put one of the tubes in the needle and walked over to Danny.

Suddenly Conner's emotions became out of his own control. He stepped in Batman's way and glared at him, "What are you doing?"

Batman remained passive, but Superman raised his eyebrow.

"Conner, what are _you_ doing?"

Conner's eyes widened as he slowly relaxed and thought about what just happened. "I-I don't know..."

Batman responded in a deadpan tone, "I'm going to take a sample of his blood for further investigation."

     Conner let Batman pass and watched as Batman put the needle in Danny's arm. The tube was half-way full until a hand grabbed Batman's wrist, with such speed, that the needle flew out of the caped man's hand, and landed on the floor, shattering the tube. Even Batman was staring with wide eyes.

Danny was now sitting in an upright 'ready-to-fight' position on the table, his right hand held Batman's wrist with a firm grip and he had flipped Batman over and onto the table, glaring at him with rage filled eyes.

" _ **Who are you? And what do you think you're doing?"**_

Conner's eyes widened as he remembered the same echo in Danny's voice earlier. But what shocked him more was the fact that his eyes were starting to glow green.

"Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! Calm down, nobody is going to hurt you!" Superman quickly assured Danny, desperately not wanting to have to fight and the kid ending up hurting himself.

Batman tried to snatch his hand back and get up, but the raven-haired boy held onto him with a firm grip. He narrowed his eyes, "I should be asking the same thing."

     Conner flinched as the raven-haired boy glared at Batman, NO ONE has EVER DARED to glare at THE Batman! "Danny, now what were about to do with that needle?" he asked, the echo now gone from his voice and the neon green disappearing from his eyes. He then let go of Batman, the latter rubbing his wrists and standing up.

"I was taking a sample of your blood for examination," Batman responded in a monotone voice.

Danny narrowed his eyes, "And why would you want to do that?"

Superman stepped forward, "We didn't mean to offend you... We are only curious as to why you're blood matches nothing within the League's database and we-"

Danny had turned towards Superman and now had an annoyed/confused look on his face. "What is the League?"

Superman sighed and said, "The Justice League, is a team of unique individuals, heroes, who help protect and keep the Earth and other worlds safe."

Danny looked down at his hands and Conner watched as Danny went into deep thought but then shook his head as if to get rid of a bad thought or memory.

Batman broke the short silence, "Where did you come from?"

Danny looked up and seemed to think before answering, "Earth."

"Where on Earth?"

"United States."

Batman was starting to get annoyed and Conner could tell. "Where?"

Danny shrugged ever so slightly and said, "Doesn't matter..."

"What's your last name?"

Danny just stared at him, face passive.

"Where are your parents?" Conner stepped in, noticing that Batman was about to get REALLY impatient with this kid.

Conner would've missed the wince if he had not been paying attention, and he's pretty sure Batman and Superman didn't miss it either. "Doesn't matter..." he whispered.

"Why?"

"Because they're not here..."

Everyone seemed to go quiet at this. ' _Does that mean-? No, maybe it's something else... but at the same time-'_

Conner's thoughts were interrupted by the caped-crusader turning around and leaving the room. He looked at Superman and they both ran after him.

"Batman?"

"I want you to report to me on a daily basis in the debriefing room. From there you will inform me of anything you find out about 'Danny'." Then he turned and left down the hallway.

Conner felt a hand on his shoulder and looked up to see Superman, "I-I...umm...I'll see you later, Conner." Then Superman followed Batman down the hallway.

Conner went back to the infirmary, only to start scolding Danny for trying to get off the table and for trying to leave with a still bleeding leg.

*Everyone's POV*

"You're doing what?!" Kid Flash and Robin exclaimed.

Batman narrowed his eyes, "I said, 'we're keeping Danny on Mount Justice until we can decide on what to do with him'."

Nightwing stepped up towards his mentor and asked, "Why not just try to contact his parents?"

Invisible steam seemed to roll off Batman (that only Robin and Nightwing were able to notice) as he answered, "Because we are unaware of his last name nor where he actually lives."

Nightwing's eyes widened at the fact that 'Danny' was able to anger THE Batman.

Superman walked up next to them and said, "He is still in the Infirmary with Conner, you may want to go help him get Danny 'cleaned-up'."

Most of the Team's eyebrows raised at his statement, but M'gann and Aqualad left to go help.

Nightwing turned to Batman again and whispered, "Did that kid really get on your nerves?"

Batman walked towards the Zeta-tubes quietly saying (only so Nightwing heard), "Shut-up Dick..." Only to leave a laughing Nightwing surrounded by his ever confused teammates.

*Danny's POV*

He's been in the 'cave', as Conner and the others called it, for a couple days now.

At first, Danny was having a hard time trying to 'relax' around the others. But ever since he left the infirmary and met some of the other members, he's been able to let his guard down every so often.

Danny now sat on the floor of the room he had been staying in, leaning his back against the bed, his legs slightly bent in front of him.

To say Danny was in deep thought, would be an understatement. He was practically lost in his memories...

" _What do you mean you didn't mean to?!"_

_"T-they ambushed me and I didn't have ti-"_

_"Stop lying! J-Just go to your room!"_

_..._

_Ice and frost were everywhere; crawling up the walls onto the ceiling in intricate patterns, the carpeted floor was now blue, his bed had frosted over, and the window seals and the door had frozen over._

_"Daniel Fenton! Open this door right now!" his mom yelled._

_Danny just sat in the corner of his room, curled up into a ball, trying to block out all outside noise._

_"Danny, listen to Maddie! You know you shouldn't have reacted in the way that you did, no unlock this door and apologize!"_

_His mom had started scolding him for 'destroying the lab' and Danny had tried to explain it wasn't his fault, but she wouldn't listen, and he ended up yelling at her._

_"It's not my fault... it's not my fault... it's not my f-fault..."_

_..._

_"Sir! You must be mistaken, Danny wouldn't-"_

_"No, you are mistaken! That boy is practically a CURSE to my class and I'm absolutely tired of ghost attacks in MY classroom, and endangering MY students! Now you either give him a good talking to, or you transfer him to a different classroom! Even better, a different SCHOOL!"_

_..._

_"Sam, listen!"_

_"Why should I?! So you can just run off and go behind my back again?! No! I'm sick of your excuses Danny!"_

_"But it's not tru-"_

_"UGH!" Then she stomped off._

Danny didn't realize a tear ran down his cheek as he played with his ice powers, still deeply lost in his memories.

As such he was not paying attention to anything around him... not even the opening of his door.

( **Ecto: Your lucky, I would've ended it there... but I'm feeling generous... -.-')**

*Conner's POV*

' _I wonder if he's still asleep?'_

Conner was just now on his way back from his 'daily reports' for Batman. Even though he didn't even have anything to report besides Danny seeming to slowly become more comfortable around everyone else.

"Hey SB!"

Conner turned to see Gar (Beast Boy), running up to him. "Hey Gar, what is it?"

Gar smiled and explained excitingly, "I was wondering if maybe you or Big Sis could convince Danny to come out of his room and we could all hang out on the beach!"

Conner gave him a tiny smile and answered, "I'll ask him when he wakes up, alright?"

Beast Boy smiled and ran off towards the living room area.

Conner turned back around and made his way over to Danny's door.

He slowly started opening the door, listening first then looking inside, only to swing the door wide open.

Danny was crying, though it looked like he was unaware of it, and had glowing blue ice forming in the air above his hand.

Conner dashed over to him and grabbed and pulled him by his upper arms and started to scold him. "What are you thinking?! That could have lost control and-" He kept scolding him until he finally just stopped and asked confusedly, "Uh, Danny?"

Danny was staring at him with wide eyes full of shock, tears stains running down both of his cheeks, and his whole body frozen in Conner's grip.

Conner sighed and let go of his arms, then grabbed his wrist and said sternly, "Come on, we need to go tell Nightwing and-"

"NOO!"

Suddenly, Danny's wrist disappeared from his grasp and Conner turned around surprised that someone was even able to escape his grip.

"I can't let anyone know! Don't you understand?! I _can't_! I _won't_ tell them! I don't want to be blamed for something else! Not ever again!-"

Conner watched as more tears were shed as he yelled, and eventually Danny was curled up on the floor, starting to cry again, and shakily rambling, "I didn't do it... I didn't do it... I didn't do it..."

A strange feeling overcame Superboy and he joined Danny on the floor and awkwardly hugged him. Conner couldn't explain it but he almost seemed weirdly comfortable hugging awkwardly and trying to comfort him. _'This is definitely unnatural to me...'_ he thought as he hugged him.

Conner pulled away to see Danny surprised with wide eyes, that he had been hugged.

Conner awkwardly and softly asked, "What do mean by 'you didn't do it'?"

      Danny seemed very hesitant and reluctant, but eventually, he explained what had happened. He explained that after he had helped save the world from the 'Dis-asteroid', his secret was exposed to his non-knowing parents and his entire town. Over the next couple of months, his parents and teachers were having a hard time excepting him as a 'whole' and eventually led the entire town to blame him for even the littlest of things, like a fallen tree or a street light's bulb going out. He had tried to keep his feelings buried inside of him, but that had only made it worse because he actually started to believe them. And how he was nearly fully convinced that it was his fault. So he ran away from home, for even his friends had begun to turn on him.

Conner sat in silence and listened until he was done. To say he was angry, would be an understatement, he was pissed. But he quickly lowered his voice, trying to sound calm, "What's would've caused them to act like that?"

Danny breathed in a sharp breath and said reluctantly, "I-I'm half dead...I'm not exactly alive..."

Conner remained quiet and Danny looked up at him surprised, "Y-you're not surprised? Or terrified of me?"

THAT caused Conner to become shocked, "Why would I be terrified?"

' _Is that why so many people hated him? Because this kid isn't exactly alive? That's like when certain people were uncomfortable around me simply because I was a clone... What sick minded people would do something like that to this kid?'_ Conner thought, now with unshed tears in his eyes.

"How?" Conner asked quietly to Danny.

     Danny had taken a seat on the bed and Conner had pulled up a nearby chair. Danny then explained what happened, and how his parents were ghost hunters and their 'big project' was a Ghost Portal. He explained how it didn't work and how he went inside because his friends eventually convinced him, and also he wanted to help his disappointed parents. He had explained everything about why he was blamed, the reason people feared him, and even explained how his human and ghost halves clashed at times.

Conner had listened the entire time and even laughed along with Danny at some of his accidents and misfortunes.

*Danny's POV*

By the time Danny was done explaining, he couldn't help but be depressed again, and he said to Conner, "I do deserve to be blamed..."

"Danny, no you-"

"Yes, I do Conner. Disaster is just waiting to happen and it's all because I'm a monster."

*Conner's POV*

     Conner watched with wide eyes as white glowing rings appeared around Danny's waist and traveled in different directions across his body. The rings revealed a black suit with white gloves, boots, collar and belt. His eyes turned from icy blue to glowing neon green, and his hair changed from raven black to a rivaling snow white. Around his body was a faint white glow, giving him a 'supernatural' and 'spiritual' look.

Conner got up from his seat and put a hand on Danny's shoulder, "Danny... you're not a monster, nor have you ever been one... You're a hero that went out of his way for everyone, even if the city you lived in hated you for it..."

*Danny's POV*

Danny looked up at Conner and saw the most shocking thing to him... Conner had a tear running down his face. _'He's crying...?_ '

Danny wiped his tear away, Conner shocked at him for doing so, and said, " _ **Conner, there's no need to cry... especially for someone that isn't even human..."**_

He watched as Conner looked at him and said with a small smile, "Danny... You're more human than you realize. More human than most people are or ever will be..."

Danny's eyes widened, " _ **R-Really**_?"

Conner smiled, "Really."

"You know... I can kind of relate," Conner said after a short silence.

 _ **"Y-you can**_?" Danny asked him.

Conner began to explain how he was actually Superman's clone and also half human. He explained what had happened when the Team had found him at Cadmus and all the adventures that had followed.

Danny listened to him and how we really felt about his teammates and how Connor actually felt about being a clone and how he dealt with it every day.

After he was done explaining, there was a long silence.

"So... now that that's out of the way, I have to tell you 'to stop blaming yourself'. What happened wasn't your fault Danny, nor could you have done anything besides what you did to fix it. You helped those people to the best of your ability and that's all you could've done, from there the people themselves had to finish fixing it... alright?"

Danny looked down at his gloved hands and thought to himself, _'Maybe Conner is right... I did everything I could do, and that's that. So...maybe, it really wasn't actually my fault and everyone just wanted to look for someone else to blame.'_

Danny smiled and nodded, transforming back, "Thanks, Conner, I think you may be right..."

After a long silence, Danny said, "Fenton..."

Conner looked confused and asked, "What?"

"My last name. My last name is Fenton."

"So when you came here through the Ghost Zone, did you enter a different time stream? Or..."

Danny thought for a moment before answering, "I think I traveled dimensions... because the portal I went through was slightly different, and by that I mean it felt different..."

Conner asked after another short silence, "Now... do you think you would feel comfortable telling everyone else? By that, I mean the Team and Batman. You don't have to tell them about your past, just what happened and who you really are?"

Danny thought for a moment before smiling and sighed nervously, "I guess it's now or never."

As they walked over to the door, Conner said to Danny, "If you keep my secret about how I feel about my past, I'll keep yours, alright?"

Danny nodded and they headed down the hallway towards the debriefing room.


	4. Chapter 3

The raven-haired teen stood there, frozen in shock, as he stared in amazement at the Team.

When Danny was getting ready to explain why and how he ended up in the forest, he was absolutely terrified. Of what you might ask? Judgement. Judgment about what he was, the reason for running from his old home, and the disappointment of the once hero.

But what he saw in front of him now, was DEFINITELY unexpected.

They were calm. Sure some of them had smiles, sad or genuine, and other members were frowning or disappointed. But Danny somehow knew that the disappointment wasn't directed at him, but at what had _happened_ to him. And THAT is why Danny was now frozen, not from fear nor anxiety, but from shock and amazement.

The long silence was broken when Danny finally felt the courage to speak up, "Y-you're not _afraid_ of me? You're not d- _disgusted_ at what I am?"

Yes, he had told them about the Disasteroid incident and the months following and the trouble his Ghost-half (ability-wise) had brought him. But he knew better than to reveal what he looked like, at least until he knew for sure that they weren't going to shoot him on sight.

Everyone seemed to look a bit shocked at his question, some concerned, others slightly amused, but mostly shocked.

Miss Martian stepped towards Danny but felt himself unintentionally take a step back. She stopped immediately with a slightly concerned look on her face, but asked gently, "We understand that you may be surprised. But why would you think that we would be _afraid_ of you or _'disgusted_ '?"

Danny looked down and tried to swallow down the lump in his throat, "Where- I'm from- everyone, even my own parents, Maddie and Jack, had claimed that all ghosts were 'evil'." He chuckled sadly as he said, "Or as Maddie used to call me, 'An odd and evil manifestation of ectoplasmic energy and post-human consciousness'..."

He looked up to see Miss Martian with a look of sympathy and then looked at the rest of her Team and the ever shadow of a figure Batman looming behind them. The Team looked at each other and Danny got that feeling that they were actually talking to each other again. Artemis stepped up this time, Danny trying his best not to back away, and said, "Okay, that explains the 'afraid' part, but what about ' _disgusted_ '?"

Danny took a deep breath and said with a slight shake in his voice, "Because of _what_ I am. I'm a scientific anomaly, I shouldn't even exist... even to the _ghosts_ I'm a freak of nature. I'm an unpredictable impossibility that has caused more than enough problems in the past."

Again, Danny was in awe, but this time by the looks of most of the Team's faces, it was understandment.

And the look being passed between Aqualad and Nightwing asked, _'Is that what is parents had said to him?'_ and ' _That seems to be likely...'_

Nightwing walked up to him and smiled, genuinely smiled, "Most of us knows how that feels, trust me when I say, we've all experienced something like that, especially when we feel as though no one could relate. But the truth is... we're never alone because we have each other."

Smiles began to appear on all of the Team's faces, even Batman seemed to give a little smirk.

"We're not just a team of heroes, Danny... we're all friends here, " Nightwing said with a smile.

Aqualad joined in, "I once thought that the only home for me would be Atlantis. But after I joined the Team, after I met everyone, I realized I was wrong. I realized that home is here, with my new friends that are like family."

Danny (not processing the fact that Aqualad mentioned Atlantis) looked at all the Team members and their smiling agreements.

Beast Boy jumped up and down excitingly, "Yeah! And you're our friend too Danny!"

"B-but, you only just met me-"

He felt a hand on his shoulder and looked up to see Connor with a small smile, "Even though we just met you, doesn't mean we can't be friends...even IF you're not from here."

Miss Martian walked up and hugged Danny, "You will always be a part of our family, no matter what you are or where you come from."

Danny could feel unshed tears in his eyes as he slowly returned Miss Martian's hug. He then turned to everyone else, "Thank you... all of you..."

A whirring sound, like an engine starting up, had filled the room. Danny turned his attention to the other side of the 'Mission Room', to see giant portal-like machines; one of them glowing brightly and three figures stepped out.

One being Superman, the other two he didn't recognize. One was a male, his head was completely bald, and his face was oddly proportioned, with heavy brows, thick lips and red eyes. His costume was primarily black, with red accents, and a large red belt and x-shaped straps across his chest. He always wore a blue cape that was fastened by gold clips. The other person was a woman. She was fair-skinned and had black hair and blue eyes. She wore a strapless red bustier held up by a brace of gold resembling two W's. She has a large golden belt and blue briefs with five white stars on them. She also wore red boots with a white stripe on the front side; silver bracelets around her wrists, red star earrings, and wore a golden diadem with a red star on her forehead. Finally, she had a golden lasso hanging from her belt.

Batman turned to Danny and gestured to the other three adults in the room, "Of course you already know Superman. This is Martian Manhunter and Wonder Woman, both original members and founders of the Justice League."

Danny gave a small wave of 'hello' with a nervous smile. Martian Manhunter nodded, while Wonder Woman smiled and gave a small wave back. ' _They seem nice...'_ Danny thought.

Batman stepped forward and kept his attention on Danny, "Since you ran away from your previous dimension and have no place to go in this one, the League has decided to offer you a place to live here, on Mount Justice. As well as a possibility of joining the Team."

Some of the team members cheered or yelled 'YES!', but the others just kept quiet or smiled lightly. At least until they noticed Danny's unhappy expression.

"There's a catch," Danny stated, not questioned.

Batman nodded, but Manhunter was the one to answer, "Because you are unfamiliar with this dimension and we have never come across a- being- such as yourself, we would like to see what you are capable of."

' _I don't think I like where this is going...'_

Danny remained monotone, "I don't think I fully understand what you're asking of me..."

Wonder Woman crossed her arms as she explained, "The League needs to know what kind of powers you have, and to see how much training you have and will or will not need."

' _Of course, that's what they wanted!'_

Danny narrowed his eyes slightly as he retorted, rather bit too harshly, "In other words, you need to know if my 'kind' is dangerous or not and need to know my weaknesses in order to know how to stop me or anyone else, if it ever comes down to a _certain_ situation."

The Leaguers (except Batman) and some of the 'Team' were struck speechless by Danny's words.

Miss Martian stepped forward, "Danny, it's not like that-"

"Please!" Danny interrupted her, "Don't try to lie to me or deny it... I've been a hero long enough and had to partner with others enough to know when there's a catch, or when I need to read in between the lines of something."

He turned to the Leaguers and took a calming breath, "Even if I don't like the reasons... I agree with your terms. But I just want you to know that I didn't have a mentor or someone there for me to show me the ropes. I had to learn everything for myself and by my own mistakes. And it wasn't like I could train my powers when I first got them either."

Superman spoke again, "Why is that?"

Danny looked at him in the eyes and said, "Usually people get a choice between fight or flight right? _**I**_ didn't get that choice. I had to learn on the spot or _die_ , simple. After I got the gist of it, I started to train myself when I had time too. Besides that, it was fighting for either mine or somebody else's life and safety 24/7."

A long silence passed by as both teenagers and adults alike processed this new bit of information and they honestly couldn't help but feel a little sympathy towards the small teen.

Batman was the one to break the silence, "So do we have a deal?"

Danny looked up at the Team and then at the Leaguers and smiled.

"Deal."

****ONE YEAR LATER****

_BOOM! CRASH!_

_The smell of smoke and burnt furniture filled the air, dust, and ash flying into the air as the roof caved in._

_Muscles ached and groaned as an elbow propped up the body and proceeded to get up slowly, a hiss of pain sounding off as it did so._

_Neon-toxic green met raging fires within the building. Support beams had fallen, papers and ash littering the floor, desks, and chairs tipped over and flown across the room._

_A cry was heard across the room. Green eyes widened and arms quickly pushed and scrambled off the boards and debris. Legs ached as they ran over to a man protecting a woman from the collapsed roof and fire. White gloved hands reached for the man and became slightly transparent as it and the two people became intangible and the roof debris fell out of their path. They became tangible once more and the man looked up and thanked the helping hands._

_"_ _**Get out of here quickly! There's an emergency staircase right outside the doors to the hallway!** _ _"_

_The man nodded and quickly rushed the coughing woman out of the room, making their escape._

_Another support beam fell and the helping hands were raised to keep the ashes out of the neon toxic green eyes. The eyes searched for any way to stop the fire, while ears listened for any more trapped citizens. An escape was found, no more trapped civilians, and white boots started for the escape window. But before they could reach them, a part of the roof collapsed again and something rammed into the escaping._

_The force was strong enough to ram him through the floor and onto the level below._

_A knight-like armored boot rested on top of his chest, rendering him immobile and struggling to try to loosen the weight that held him down._

_As white hair was pushed out of green eyes, they looked up in hatred and slight fear at the intimidating figure._

_Black armor and chainmail covered the figure's legs and arms. A black chest plate was worn as well as black shoulder armor. A green belt was tied around its waist along with a diagonal sash and leather belt. In the middle of the waist belt sat a golden disk, within it were two dangerous and looming eyes, as if they were alive themselves; hanging from the belt was a glowing green sword and a gray piece of cloth, adding a pharaoh like look to the armor. Two green glowing skulls held the black shoulder armor in place while wearing two gray armored gloves with green spikes along the cuffs and knuckles. The figure's head had a red cracked helmet/armor with a pharaoh's beard surrounding their face; revealing a right green eye with a scar over it, and a black eye patch over the left, and a fanged twisted smile. Two horns stuck out of the helmet, one-half broken, the other as sharp as a talon. Long spiked/shaggy green hair flowed down its back, acting as if it were the flames of a fire. And lastly, a green glowing fired crown sat upon their head, and a glowing green ring rested on their left ring finger._

_"_ _**Pariah!** _ _"_

_The being, 'Pariah', smiled evilly, as he bent down resting his right arm on the leg keeping the other on the floor, "Having that much power... it's a burden isn't it, child?"_

_Said 'child', continued to struggle under Pariah's boot. When finally, he'd had enough, "_ _**The power isn't the burden... The burden is in how I use it!"** _

( **A/N: Actual dialogue from episode 'Reign Storm'.)**

_He raised his hand and shot a green ecto-beam at Pariah, causing the other to stumble back in surprise._

_He immediately jumped up and flipped backward and landed in a fighting position._

_Pariah growled in annoyance and glared at the halfa, "Have it your way then!"_

_Before he could do anything, Pariah shot a red eye beam at the ceiling, and the ceiling came crashing towards wide green eyes._

"NNOOO!"

Danny was now sitting up in his bed panting, forehead damp with sweat and had his wide blue eyes staring at the covers in front of him.

_'It was just a dream... Calm down, Phantom... it was just a dream.'_

He closed his eyes and took a calming deep breath when suddenly the door swung open with a BANG!

"DANNY!"

Said person almost jumped three feet in the air, as Gar (Beast Boy) came sprinting into the room yelling excitedly.

Only to stop when realizing Danny's reaction, "Uh, Danny? Are you alright?"

The later just stared for at the green boy for a moment before remembering that the other had asked a question. "Oh! I'm fine Gar, just a dream I had that's all..." _'More like a nightmare...'_

Gar just shrugged and then smiled and began to ramble on about why he was so excited.

Danny simply smiled at him and chuckled at his excited chatter.

He doesn't know what it is with Beast Boy, or Gar as he was told to call him, but he always seemed to make Danny smile. Whenever he is in a bad mood or just not feeling well and he just needs some cheering up, the Team always sends Gar. And somehow, in some way, it always works.

"-so what do 'ya think?"

Danny shook the cobwebs from his mind, "Sorry, Gar I spaced out, what was your question?"

Gar huffed (comically) and explained, "Okay. So, today Nightwing says we're going to mostly be tidying up the 'Cave', a little bit of training, and then going to relax the rest of the day. And it's all because we're going on a mission in a couple days and that means that we finally get to have some action! So my question is, 'what do you think?'"

Danny smiled and answered, "Well, to be honest, you need to be careful what you wish for-" _'One because I know from experience at what that can lead to. And second, they almost had a really bad run-in with a certain wishing ghost.'_ "-Also, training sounds good right about now... maybe sparing can allow me to brush off that dream I had. Oh, and Gar?"

Gar looked confused, signaling the older teen to go on.

Danny playfully glared at him, "You are going to help Megan and I clean up the 'Hanger' this time right?"

Gar groaned in annoyance and said, "Yes... I'll help you guys clean it up this time."

Danny smiled and went over to his draws to pick out his 'house-clothes' (a plain white t-shirt and some light blue jogging pants), while Gar smiled and exclaimed, "Hurry up though! We're all going to eat and then clean up the Cave first!"

The other laughed as Gar left the room and closed the door.

Danny chuckled at Megan's reaction to his blueberry pancakes.

"Oh, my gosh Danny! These are amazing!" Megan said with wide eyes that seemed to be filled with joy and wonder.

"Yeah, seriously dude! These are seriously crash!" Bart (Impulse) exclaimed eating two more with super speed. (Along with Wally.)

"Where did you learn to cook so well?" Kaldur asked.

' _Oh, that's right! I forgot I never go to explain where I had learned how to cook to Kaldur!'_

Danny smiled at him and gave a small laugh.

"Well, back in Amity Park, Maddie and Jack were always out 'hunting ghosts' or at conventions. So Jazz usually had to cook a lot for the both of us, but once she was in her Sophmore year in High School and I was an eighth grader in Middle School, she started teaching me. Then after awhile I got the hang of it and started to cook for everyone. Even when I had patrol or something, I always tried to find the time to bake or cook. By the way, Megan, that offer is still open if you want me to show you some baking recipes I picked up awhile back."

Megan seemed to be overjoyed at this new fact and nodded her head 'yes'.

Megan was basically Danny's mom on the Team. She would point out if something's wrong and try to fix it. She would always check to make sure he was okay and always made sure that he was at his very best. When Danny had frequent nightmares (in the beginning, when he had joined the team) about his past fights and family, she would always let him talk to her about them and comfort him. Megan would mess with him, scold him (for him and Gar, occasionally Nightwing, playing pranks on Wally), teach him, and was just there for him, even if and when he made mistakes.

_Megan had been scolding Danny for running off on his own again and had just finished by threatening to ground him to the Cave._

_"Jeez, Mom-!"_

_M'gann whipped around and had wide eyes as she stared at him in shock._

_Danny quickly covered his mouth, blushing a slight red/pink and he started to tear up, embarrassed and ashamed of himself for slipping._

_"I-I'm sorry I-I didn't mean to c-call you that! I-I'll just go-"_

_Megan instantly stopped him from leaving by pulling Danny into a hug._

_"It's alright Danny... it's fine... we all slip up sometimes... but-"_

_Danny shot his head up staring at Megan with tears still in his eyes. But all she did was smile at him and say, "I actually don't really mind you calling me that..."_

_That left Danny speechless as they continued to hug each other, both with tears running down their cheeks, but both for different reasons._

"Why aren't you eating Danny?" Kaldur asked.

"I fell into a habit where I clean up first, then wait till everyone's done eating before I actually sit down to eat," Danny explained snapping out of his thoughts.

Some of the other members raised their eyebrows at this, remembering having this same exact conversation almost a year ago.

Danny sighed and explained, "Look, you should know by now that I can go a week without eating, plus it was a forced habit. A lot of times I would get done cooking, and Jazz would already be eating, but then my Ghost sense would go off and I would have to go out and catch the ghost, most of the time multiple ghosts."

Everyone that was at the table seemed to understand and just dropped the topic.

"Old habits, die hard huh?" Connor stated breaking the short silence.

Danny rubbed the back of his neck and answered back, "Guess you could say that..."

"DANNY!"

Out of nowhere, Danny was tackled with a hug from behind, almost causing him to fall over. Danny mumbled, "Speaking of habits..."

"ZATANNA! What have I told you about messing around with Danny in the kitchen!?" Megan scolded.

Zatanna fake pouted and let go of Danny.

The latter turned around and smiled at her. Zatanna had medium length black hair and bright cyan colored eyes. She was wearing her more casual outfit, which was a pair of white or black pants with a light violet top and white or black shoes. She was also wearing her white earrings today.

Now he know's what you're thinking... him and Zatanna. But no, it's not actually. In fact, the Team jokes around saying she's Danny's enthusiastic (sometimes annoying) big sister. She's constantly making sure he's staying out of trouble and is always giving him hugs and just being a really really... enthusiastic sister.

Actually, now that Danny is thinking about it... Zatanna did once explain that the reason she acted like that around him was because; 1, Danny was one of the few people she could call a 'brother' (always messes with the team with that one), and 2, she just wants to feel like a kid again sometimes, and Danny to her is just the person to allow it and it's also her excuse to be that way, but still knows when it's time to be a hero and get serious.

The Team laughed and smiled at Zatanna's childish behavior, causing her to smile as well, yet still managing to fake pout.

Danny turned around and started to clean up his cooking mess, while Zatanna remained in the kitchen leaning on the counters closest to everyone else.

"I was just playing with my baby brother-"

CRASH!

The Team whipped their heads towards the noise, to find a now shattered glass plate on the floor.

Danny was frozen as he stared at the shattered glass with wide ice-blue eyes. The raven curtain of hair hiding his momentary shock from the others.

' _Oh no, not now!'_

Megan was instantly by his side, but made sure not to touch him knowing fully well what was going on, "Danny?!"

A teenage girl with aqua blue eyes and long orange hair that reached down to her hips was smiling at him. She wore a long-sleeve v-neck black shirt, aqua pants, a pair of simple black flats and an aqua headband.

Danny bent down and silently began to pick up the glass shards and pieces, desperately trying to push the memories back to the back of his mind.

 _'Why now? Why do the memories have to come back now?!'_ he thought somewhat angrily.

The people on the opposite side of the counter looked on with confusion and some turned to the now standing and ready-to-assist Connor and Gar. But even they were confused... ' _Since when did the visions and flashbacks start coming back?'_ they thought.

"Little brother?" Zatanna asked with worry and concern.

_"Danny, I know you think I'm pushy, and I'm a know-it-all. I know you think I can be a jerk sometimes..."_

_Danny smiled slyly._

_"You know, you can stop me at any time."_

_"I know."_

Danny's hands started to slightly shake. _'You need to keep your cool Fenton...'_

"Danny, what's wrong? What are you seeing?" Megan asked, now with a voice full of worry and concern.

_"Always know I'll be right here for you little brother..." the teen said with a brilliant and intelligent smile._

(All real dialogue!)

"Then why weren't you there? And why aren't you here now?" Danny growled out in heart-aching pain. He wasn't paying attention and a glass shard had cut his palm, revealing a small trickle of red and green.

"DANNY!"

Danny's mind snapped back to reality and stared with wide eyes at Megan and Conner, who in turn both had looks of deep concern and worry. While the rest of the team looked on in confusion and interest.

"Are you alright?" Zatanna asked with a shaky voice.

Danny shook the lingering pieces of memories away and gave her a sad smile, "Yeah I'm fine." Then proceeded, except with more caution, to pick up the plate pieces. At least until a green hand stopped him by setting it gently on top of the others hand.

He looked up to see Megan again, "Who wasn't there, Danny? Tell us what's wrong. What did you see?"

Danny quickly swallowed a lump in his throat and said while throwing the glass pieces away.

"Was it your sister again?" Megan asked softly.

Danny nodded his head but remained silent.

"Now it makes sense," he heard Connor say, now relaxing and sitting back in his seat.

The present Team members looked on in confusion.

"What makes sense?" Artemis, Wally, and Bart all asked at once, voicing everyone's thoughts.

Danny turned to see Connor explain, "His older sister, Jazz, used to call him 'baby or little brother'. But when he was- having trouble at home- she wasn't there to stop the constant arguments from starting."

He turned to Zatanna to see her nod her head in understanding, "So when I called you 'baby brother', it made you think of her?"

He smiled sadly again and nodded, then turned around and washed off his hand, before returning to cleaning the dishes.

"I'm sorry Danny I didn't mean to-"

"It's fine Zatanna," he interrupted rather quickly, "Seriously, it is... I just wasn't expecting it and I didn't expect any visions or flashbacks to come back either. You're fine, I promise."

She smiled sadly and nodded, probably knowing that that was the end of that conversation.

"So..." he heard Wally say, "who's up for a little cleaning up?"

Everyone smiled and smirked at each other.

*Everyone's POV*

The Team (or at least who was present) had just finished their cleaning wars and were now headed for the training room.

Cleaning wars was basically an idea Wally and Dick came up with a while back to make cleaning the Cave a little bit more interesting. It's when everyone is split into different teams and assigned to clean certain parts of the Cave. The objective of the 'war' is to finish all the chores and cleaning the assigned places the fastest and most efficiently. Whichever team finishes this task first, earns bragging rights and early 'release' time (going home early if there were no missions).

Gar and Impulse had won again and were smiling the entire time they walked to the training room.

As they entered the training room, Danny tensed slightly, and the happy chatter around him ended as the Team stared at the adults and two teen occupants standing in the middle of the room. Among the adults were Black Canary, Superman, Batman, Flash, and surprisingly Green Lantern (Hal Jordan). Nightwing and Robin stood off to the side of them with emotionless expressions.

Canary noticed Danny's reaction to the amount of Leaguers and calmly raised her hand as if to say there was nothing to be afraid of. She noticed Danny relax slightly, but still remained on edge. Noticing his odd behavior, she sent a look towards Megan and Connor, who in turn mouthed the words, 'vision' and 'flashbacks'. She nodded her head in understanding, but inwardly sighed as she thought of the unpleasant ' _talk'_ she'd have to have with Danny later.

Aqualad was the first to break the long silence, "To what do we owe the honor of the present Leaguers?"

Superman smiled and stepped forward, "There's no need for formalities Aqualad. We're actually here to see Danny."

At the sound of his name, Danny's attention was fully on the Leaguers and was once again tense.

Superman frowned a bit at his reaction at glanced at Canary, who in turn gave him a look that said, ' _I'll tell you later.'_ He quickly turned his attention back to Danny and explained reassuringly, "It's alright Danny, Batman and I came to see the progress with your training and just to see how you doing with the Team in general. It has been one year after all, and we haven't checked in with you since two months ago."

Danny winced as he understood what Superman was referring to, but nodded in understanding all the same.

The Team, of course, walked closer to the Leaguers and their fellow teammates as Superman said all of this.

Flashed walked forward and stuck out his hand towards Danny with a smirk on his face. "I tagged along because simply because we haven't been able to formally meet yet. Sure we've been able to meet during combat and fought together for about ten minutes, but it's still not the same. Also, I came because I was kind of curious to see you when not in action."

Danny shook Flash's hand for a moment and then brought his attention back to the other Leaguers.

This time Green Lantern stepped up, "I came along just to see the amount of skills you have, sorry for sounding so critical."

Danny shook his hand and replied with, "I don't really mind."

Canary cleared her throat and everyone's attention was directed at her. "Team, except Danny, could you please move away from the sparring area and stand over near the opposite wall."

The Team did as she asked and Batman finally decided to speak up, "You'll be facing Robin and then Nightwing for your first round."

The League members then walked over close to the Team and waited for the match to start.

Flash rose an eyebrow at Beast Boy and Impulse who were having a quiet conversation.

"3 minutes for Robin," Impulse stated.

"Less than one," Beast Boy replied back with a smile.

"What are you kids doing?" Flash asked.

Beast Boy and Impulse both smirked and Beast Boy answered back, "Betting on how long it will take for Danny to beat Robin."

Flash raised both eyebrows at that and then turned his attention back towards the center of the room.

Canary turned to Batman and he gave a short nod, then she turned back to Danny saying, "Alright Danny, for now, while you're going against Robin and Nightwing, no powers alright?"

Danny nodded in confirmation and then turned towards Robin, both getting into a fighting stance.

"GO!"

Danny and Robin circled each other for a couple seconds, one waiting on the other, but in the end, Robin finally decided to make the first move.

( **A/N: Please note that this is all going on very quickly, I'm simply describing what exactly is happening.** )

Robin lunged forward and sent a punch towards Danny's face, but the latter sidestepped and blocked with his forearm, pushing the arm away, causing Robin to show his back.

But he quickly swung around sent a roundhouse kick towards Danny. Danny ducked and swung his leg out all in one swift movement, kicking Robin's legs out from under him. Robin quickly rolled and jumped back up and then ran up close to get in a few punches. Danny blocked and pushed away most of the punches (others briefly hitting his arms and shoulders), Robin then sent another kick his way, but Danny flipped backward and pretended to try and send a punch towards the other's right side. Robin fell for it and Danny quickly and efficiently switched legs for balance and roadhouse kicked Robin on his left side, sending the latter tumbling down onto the ground. Danny in a swift movement flipped and landed above Robin, holding the latter's arm behind their back and keeping it there, rendering the other immobile.

"Match end!" Canary announced.

Danny let go of Robin and offered him his hand. The other took it and Danny helped him up, both smiling as they did so.

Flash stood there dumbfounded, "D-did he just take down Robin?"

Over to his right, he heard Beast Boy say, "Ha! I win! You owe me a bag of chips!" Followed by a groan, which Flash could only guess was Impulse.

Hal turned to the other Leaguers and said, "So far, I'm not entirely impressed. Stewart told me that the boy was both resourceful and powerful, and as of right now, I'm not seeing any of that."

Superman simply smiled and said, "I think you'd be surprised at what this kid can do, I wouldn't underestimate him if I were you."

Hal simply crossed his arms and leaned against the wall behind him, his attention now back towards the center of the room.

"Alright, Nightwing, you're allowed to use your Eskrima sticks for this fight. Danny you are only allowed to use advanced speed. Nightwing?" "Ready." "Danny?" "Ready." "Go!"

Nightwing lunged forward with his Eskrima sticks already in hand. Nightwing swung left and Danny dodged, swung right, dodge. Nightwing continued this for a short time before jumping up and swinging his foot around for a kick. Danny caught the other's ankle and swung it away from him. Nightwing landed then went forward and began to expertly swing his Eskrima Sticks towards Danny. The other was hit a couple times (not much different than the match with Robin) but still managed to dodge most of Nightwing's attacks.

"Why isn't he going offensive? I also noticed that he did that to Robin as well," Superman pointed out.

Canary turned to Superman and explained, "Danny may be able to fight supernatural beings and meta-humans, but that doesn't mean that he likes to fight humans. In fact, he tries to avoid fighting humans if he can."

"What? Why?" Flash asked.

Canary turned towards him, "Because in his past dimension, even though people treated him differently and rejected him, he never wished to harm anyone. He was used to fighting ghosts and only ghosts. His town hated him already, and he was afraid that if he fought humans or accidentally harmed one of them, their hatred for him would just grow."

The Leaguers seemed to be surprised at this and Green Lantern asked, "Then how are you able to send him on missions?"

Batman answered this time, "He has been sent on both recon missions and infiltration missions. If a fight was to occur during these, he always tried to fight either super-villains or humans with armor on, such as Sportsmaster."

Nightwing stopped his now pointless attacks and looked over at the Leaguers (mainly Batman). In turn, Batman narrowed his eyes and turned to Canary, "He has to if we want to see the complete results of his training so far."

Canary sighed and looked over at the two opponents, "He's not going to like it, not one bit."

Batman simply remained silent and Canary sighed in defeat and turned to Nightwing and nodded.

In turn, Nightwing nodded back and got back into his fighting stance. He lunged at Danny and started to throw punches this time before saying, "I'm really sorry about this Phantom!" Danny's eyes widened as Nightwing turned on the electricity on his Eskrima sticks. Realizing what he was about to do, Danny moved backward and exclaimed, "Nightwing don't!"

_"_ _**Look out!"** _

_Phantom pushed Nightwing out of the way of the blade of a sword, before turning and knocking the armored man unconscious with a solid kick to the head._

_He felt a SLAP! and turned, rubbing the back of his head, and smiled nervously at Nightwing. But said person was not smiling, nor amused._

_"You could've gotten yourself killed!"_

_"_ _**But I didn't-"** _

_"I had it handled Phantom, there was no need for you to jump in."_

_Phantom dropped his hand to his arm and rubbed it nervously._

_"But hey..."_

_Phantom looked up to see Nightwing sighing and then gave him a small smile._

_"Thanks for the save anyways..."_

_The other smiled back and said, "_ _**What are friends for?"** _

Nightwing lunged and swung the left eskrima stick at Danny, the latter raised his arm to block it, but electricity crackled as it hit against his skin and Danny hissed in pain as he was forced to flip backward and away from the other. Nightwing began to attack again, causing Danny to block a few more blows but was now starting to get affected by the electricity and slowing down. Danny was sent flying back as Nightwing swung his leg around and kicked him away, boots also crackling with energy. He stood up and stared at his opponent, the latter dashing forward straight towards him. But Danny had, had enough-

"Dang it Nightwing!" he exclaimed with annoyance and slight fear in his voice.

Danny finally decided to go offensive and Green Lantern's eyes went wide (dropping his arms from being crossed and pushed himself off the wall) as well as Flash, and some of the Team.

Danny sent a punch one way but tricked Nightwing and then used his upper body strength and speed to switch tactics and kick him in the side of his leg. Nightwing quickly recovered and started sending his own punches and kicks. Danny cartwheeled to the side and began to throw punches most of which Nightwing deflected, but others landed a hit. Finally, Nightwing swung a huge punch towards him, but Danny swung his body to the right, making Nightwing's side an opening target. With inhuman speed, Danny twisted his body and swung his leg around, kicking the other square in the chest, knocking the wind out of Nightwing, wrapped his arm around the other's shoulders, and thus causing him to push Nightwing down with his built up momentum. Danny landed with one knee on Nightwing's chest, an elbow at the other's throat and the other hand holding down his left shoulder. Nightwing tried to wrap his legs around the other's neck, but Danny saw it coming and quickly swung his other leg around (the one not holding Nightwing down) and back kicked the other's legs; causing them to fall back onto the ground (most likely bruised in the area the kick landed) and thus ending the match.

Nightwing was panting/gasping, slowly getting the air back into his lungs, from the wind being knocked out of them. He was also sweating slightly on his forehead. But Danny wasn't exactly in that great of a shape either. He had burn marks and minor bruises on his arms and a large burn mark on his shirt. Danny was panting as well, just not as bad or as long as Nightwing.

The Leaguers and the Team were all staring in amazement and shocked at the events that had just occurred.

Luckily Canary snapped out of it quickly and exclaimed, "Match and round end!"

By the announcement of these words, Danny was finally allowed to get off of Nightwing. He stood up and held a hand out for Nightwing. The other just stared at him for a moment, now simply panting, but then gave a small smile and took the other's hand, allowing Danny to help him up. Nightwing swayed a little bit, but immediately just shook it off and walked slowly over to where Robin was.

"I must admit, that was kind of impressive," Green Lantern stated with wide eyes.

Canary only frowned and walked over to Danny and put a hand on his shoulder, "Are you alright? We don't have to continue if you don't want to..."

' _She did NOT just seriously ask me that...'_

Danny simply frowned and said, "Just like how I had the choice to fight back or not? I've fought before, and I know _for a fact_ that defense isn't always the best offense. That's why I had planned on just tiring Nightwing out, to have _him_ have to keep up with _me_ , and then take him down. Yes, the fight would've been longer, but at least we would've come out of it with less damage... As for your question, I'd rather just get this over with, so that way I'm not _forced_ into fighting again."

The Team was mildly surprised, while the Leaguers were almost completely dumbstruck at hearing what the boy's tactics would've been if they would've let the fight carry on.

Canary frowned but nodded and turned around to the others, "Aqualad? Super-"

"I would like to face him if that's alright with you."

Everyone turned towards Green Lantern with surprised looks.

"What? If the kid accepts, then yes, I am willing to have a match with him."

Flash put his hands on his hips and stated, "Yeah right! The only reason you want to go against the kid is that you've heard how powerful he is."

"Actually I want to see if the kid can handle in a fight against me," Hal said matter-of-factly.

Flash simply rolled his eyes at Hal's comment and kept quiet. 

But his apprentice had a different idea, "Hey that's not fair! Danny's not even at full strength anymore! Even with his advanced healing, it's not like he can fight right away!"

Green Lantern shrugged at Kid Flash's reaction and turned his attention to Danny, "Well what do you say?"

Danny had long finished panting and his burns were already starting to clear up. He thought about it for a moment, looking to Canary for her opinion. "This is your fight, not mine." Danny looked back to Lantern and said after a moment's hesitation, "This fight will have to be indoors, so no big stunts. Flight is limited to 8 feet off the ground, advanced speed and strength are allowed. Minor explosions will be allowed, but limited to a two-foot detonation radius."

The Team all had surprised looks on their faces, completely shocked that he was going through with this. The Leaguers were mildly surprised, Flash could be considered down right dumbstruck, but otherwise were calm and agreeable to the set conditions.

"Alright kid, so I was told you don't like to fight humans. You are aware that I am a human?"

Danny nodded and deadpanned, "But the ring that the Green Lantern Corps had given you, Hal Jordan, and John Stewart, grants the wearer incredible and incomprehensible powers and abilities by harnessing willpower. They are considered by some to be the most powerful weapons in the known universe. Depending on the skill and willpower of the wearer, it can do almost anything."

Hal's eyes went wide and he scrambled for words, "What-Wh-HOW?!"

Danny crossed his arms and said (still deadpan), "If I was going to live in this new dimension, I would have to study the history behind it as well. Heroes, villains, and civilians alike."

Hal began to compose himself again, "Good, but just know that just because you study the history of this dimension and its inhabitants, doesn't necessarily give you an edge."

Danny smirked and said, "Just like how you had an 'edge' when you tried to team up with Guy Gardner?"

Some of the Team members smiled and were trying to not laugh at Danny's comeback.

"Alright! I think that's enough chit chat, go ahead and get ready to start and be sure to not hold back," Lantern declared with a slightly upset look.

Danny raised an eyebrow and replied back smartly with, "Unless you want to explain to the locals why Mount Justice suddenly went up in smoke, I'd advise you to NOT say that again..."

Gar, Impulse, and Flash gulped at the thought, but the younger heroes shared a look remembering a previous mission and they remembered very vividly _why_ you shouldn't underestimate Danny.

Canary turned to everyone else and said, "Alright everyone back up near the opposite wall please, so we can give them space."

Everyone obeyed and went to the opposite side of the room near the wall.

Danny turned to Lantern who was cracking his knuckles and stood in the center of the room.

Lantern gave him an expecting look and Danny rolled his eyes at him. Danny closed his eyes and reached for the cold feeling within him. His eyes shot open and the glowing transformation rings appeared around his waist. Lantern's eyes widened slightly as the rings traveled in opposite directions and turned his white shirt and blue jogging pants into a black and white hazmat suit. The rings passed over his head, changing his raven hair to snow white, and his eyes from icy-blue to neon toxic green. Lantern stared at the transformed kid in front of him and couldn't seem to find words.

Danny ignored his reaction and went into a battle stance.

Meanwhile, Superman leaned over to Batman and whispered, "Have you found out anything that could possibly disrupt Phantom's powers? Or maybe even weaken him?"

Without turning, Batman crossed his arms, narrowed his eyes and answered back, "I've discovered multiple things that can weaken him to a certain point, but not long lasting or very effective if it came down to mind control or something similar. Electrocution does a number on him, but not enough to keep him down for awhile. With our current information, it's best to try to defeat him in numbers and not one at a time."

Lantern snapped out of it and he too was about to get into a fighting stance, when he noticed something off. Danny was in a different fighting position than when he had fought Bat's kids. Lantern quickly came up with a theory in his head then decided to let it go and just focus on the fight.

Canary stepped a little closer to them and turned to each person, before looking at Danny one more time, "Are you sure about this?"

Phantom only nodded in response and Canary sighed before raising her hand and swinging down, "Go!"

Green Lantern shot forward and sent a punch towards Phantom, the latter simply caught the other's fist, causing his eyes to widen again. The teen knew better than to smirk, and simply turned and kicked Green Lantern in the chest, sending him flying backwards. Lantern quickly recovered and landed on his feet, now staring at the neon focused green eyes. ' _He didn't even flinch!'_ Hal growled slightly as he stood up straight. He lunged forwards again and threw multiple punches again, but the ghost simply remained passive and blocked and dodged all of the punches. Hal went in for a huge kick, but Phantom flipped and slid backward. "Not fighting again kid?! Come on! Give me something to work with!"

Phantom remained passive, not responding to Lantern and continued to stand in the same place as he did when they started. ' _Looks like I'll have to bring out the big guns anyways,_ ' Hal thought.

GL (I'm calling Hal that for the rest of this fight) floated off of the ground slightly and raised his hand over his head. A large green anvil formed above his head and he swung his arm down, the anvil following his movements. The anvil swung towards Phantom and the latter quickly formed a green dome shield around himself. The anvil bounced off of the shield and dropped to the ground. It disappeared in a green light back into Lantern's ring. GL pulled back his arms and a baseball bat formed in the next to him, he swung his arms and the bat hurdled towards Phantom. "Batter-up!"

Phantom quickly jumped up into the air, over the bat, and remained floating there.

GL groaned and exclaimed, "Look Phantom, I wanted to fight you to see how strong you were! I can't do that if you stand around like a statue all day!"

Phantom narrowed his eyes and stated simply, " _ **Fine**_."

He disappeared.

GL blinked in surprise and looked around, "Where'd 'e go?"

Suddenly GL was flown into the ground by an unseen force. He chuckled while standing back up, "Very funny kid, absolutely hilarious..."

He searched for the white haired teen but still couldn't find him. ' _Invisibility... right. Forgot about that...'_ This time he searched for a disturbance in the air, but couldn't find anything. ' _Oh, he's good...'_

Out of nowhere, he felt a kick to his side and a punch to the face. GL rubbed his jaw bone as he looked at the area he thought Phantom was at. It wasn't until a green beam shot towards him, did he confirm his theory. He quickly dodged the attack and sent a barrage of rays in that area and with a satisfying 'thump', he smiled as Phantom was flickering in and out of the visible spectrum pulling himself off the ground.

GL chuckled and said, "Sorry kid, but it's going to take a lot more than-ACK!"

Phantom had lunged and GL was now trying to dodge green punches being thrown at him. He grabbed one of the ghost's arms and tossed him in the opposite direction. The other recovered with inhuman speed and flipped himself in the air and threw a green energy disk at GL, successfully hitting him and causing a mini explosion. The mini explosion threw GL into the air, tumbling and then hitting the nearby wall, causing it have a small web design.

GL stood up and said with amusement clear in is voice, "Alright then, Now we're getting somewhere!"

GL's body glowed brighter and floated up into the air. He swung a large fist at the ghost teen, who in turn turned intangible. But as the fist passed through him, Phantom felt a sting like that of electricity in his left side and as soon as the fist was gone, the teen had to release his intangibility, he stumbled back some, gasping. Phantom saw Canary step forwards but he held up a hand, " _ **I'm fine."**_ She nodded and backed up again, but not without the look of worry still on her face.

Batman raised an eyebrow at this but remained silent.

Phantom turned back to GL and took a deep breath, then shot an ecto-beam at him. GL formed a shield and the ecto-beam dissipated. Phantom flew through the air towards GL and they started a hand-to-hand combat mid-air. GL sent a right-hook but the teen ducked and sent an uppercut, GL floated slightly backwards, but Phantom didn't let up. He roundhouse kicked(ecto-infused) him in the side and then shot an ecto-beam at his back, causing the other to land on his stomach.

Phantom gave a quick look to his Team. Some of his friends cheered, other's smiled or put a thumb's up. When a voice rang out, "Fire in the hole!"

But the ghost was too late to turn back around, because a green energy gun had appeared and fired a beam of light, and it hit him square in the chest. He crashed into the nearby wall, and pieces of the wall itself fell on top of him. The debris sent up a small could of dust, and as the dust slightly cleared, everyone noticed that Phantom wasn't moving.

GL looked towards the Team to see them with shocked and worried faces. Flash, Canary, and even Superman were surprised. Some of the Team and Canary were about to dash over to him but stopped when Phantom started moving again. He stood up slowly and with a slight wobble. His snow white hair covered his eyes, hiding any sort of emotion from the people presently watching.

GL laughed and said, "Well then, up already? Come on! Surrender kid, you can't possibly win!"

( **Disclaimer: Sorry to interrupt, but this is very close to actual dialogue which is, "Surrender child, you can't possibly win!")**

That's when something inside of Phantom snapped.

Everyone's eyes widened as Phantom's green aura flared up to almost two feet long.

Batman's belt beeped rapidly, and he quickly took out a small device and read it. He tried to stay calm, recognizing the signs from before, as he said, "Everyone needs to back up now!"

They turned to him and someone asked why. He turned to them and exclaimed, "Now! His energy readings are spiking! We need to move now!"

They quickly followed orders and moved as far away as possible, still watching the now glowing brighter Phantom.

Phantom looked up and some people gasped. His eyes were now fully green and glowing brightly, his face itself was twisted in rage.

" _ **PaRiAH DArK**_!"

Everyone felt chills run down their spines at the sound of Phantom's voice, it had a haunting and just overall chilling effect on everyone. It sounded as though his voice was everywhere and nowhere all at once, and that wasn't including that it sounded like nails on a chalkboard.

" _ **I'M GoiNg To PUt yOu BaCK in THaT foRSaKEn SArcOPhAgUS, so YOu CAn RoT IN ThE DaRKeST PaRtS oF THE GhOst zOnE IN it!"**_

Batman narrowed his eyes and turned to Canary. She all she did was cover her mouth in surprise and then turned to Superboy. Superboy looked on with wide eyes but saw Black Canary and the question implied. "H-he's re-living the past! I don't think he's with us right now! We need to snap him out of it!"

Canary turned back to Batman and was about to agree with Superboy, but the Caped Crusader only held up his hand and said, "Hold on... Let's see what he does..."

Superboy turned to Batman and exclaimed, "What?! We need to stop him now! Before he ends up hurting Green Lantern! Along with HIMSELF!"

Batman simply glared at Superboy and said back with ice in his words, "That's an order."

Superboy glared back but then huffed and stomped over to Miss Martian who looked as though she was about to have a heart attack.

Back at the scene, GL was internally confused, but he wasn't about to back down. He got into a fighting stance and said cockily, "Give me your best shot!"

Phantom growled and planted his feet to the ground. He remained in place as he shot a white/green energy beam at GL. The latter put up a shield, but began to noticed that is was cracking, he quickly used his ring to form a small catapult and dropped the shield. The last two beams were caught in the catapult and launched back to Phantom. They seemed to hit an invisible shield as they suddenly were torn apart and the white/green beams circled around him before they were absorbed.

GL's eyes widened and he stepped back, completely unaware that he had that kind of power.

Phantom narrowed his fully green eyes as he said, " _ **TiME tO eNd YoUr gAMeS PaRiAH! YoUr REign ENdEd ceNtRiES AgO!"**_

Phantom took a deep breath and Canary's eyes widened in fear as both she and Batman realized what was going to happen. In sync, the two adult heroes exclaimed, "COVER YOUR EARS!"

Everyone quickly covered their ears, just in time too, for what happened next, no one but Black Canary and Batman expected it.

Phantom let out an ear-splitting scream. It sounded as though thousands of souls were being tortured all at once, screaming for the pain to end. The wail was so powerful that it came out in green sound waves. GL used the ring to form a shield, but the wail became too powerful and the shield shattered and the waves flung GL backwards into the wall, creating a large webbed crater, and GL stuck in the crater as the waves kept coming. The entire room shook, and undoubtedly the entire mountain. Eventually, the scream stopped and the room stopped shaking. GL fell to the ground, groaning but not getting up. Phantom was trying to regain his breath and looked completely exhausted and on the verge of collapsing.

Everyone let go of their ears and now stared awestruck at the teen hero. Though Batman had a look of disappointment and anger displayed on his face.

Phantom looked up at GL and then back at the Team, ' _Great... now I... have to...explain why...I've kept that power a secret. Well at least Batman and Canary already knew...'_

That's when his advanced hearing picked up a cracking noise. He turned and saw the ceiling above GL beginning to crack and break. And GL was only just now beginning to stand up. Phantom quickly dashed over to him and shoved GL out of the way, just as the rubble fell on top of him. GL was in shock and confusion as he stared at the now covered with heavy pieces of rubble Phantom. The rubble had fallen on top of Phantom while his back was up, so now he was laying on his stomach and his white hair was full of gray and tan dust. His face and arms had minor cuts and there were only a few bruises, but what scared GL was that he wasn't moving nor making any sound at all.

Green Lantern was speechless as the Team ran over to them and Superman and Flash helped him onto his feet. They asked if he was okay, and he kept telling them that he has fine and to not worry about him.

Superboy and Aqualad began to un-bury Phantom from all the rubble and eventually finished and everyone was now able to see the minor cuts and bruises on his body.

Canary and Miss Martian quickly bent down next to him and examined all his injuries. Canary turned to Batman saying, "Only minor cuts and bruises he should be fine."

Batman nodded and bent down to examine the damage as well when he noticed something. He scooted over to the ghost's side and looked over a large dark green and black streak near his rib cage. Before he could further examine it, Superman put a hand on his shoulder, "Something's wrong..."

Impulse stepped forward and asked, "Yeah... why hasn't Phantom changed back yet?"

Everyone on the team exchanged worried looks, but Superman interrupted them, "No not that... I-I can't hear a heartbeat..."

The Team turned to Superman as though he had grown a second head or was just a complete idiot.

Batman quickly bent back down over Phantom and put two fingers on his neck, then to his wrist. "He doesn't have a pulse either..." Then he stood back up.

The Team then also sent the same look at Batman. But before anyone on the Team could explain-

Phantom gasped and everyone had to catch themselves as they were startled (except Beast Boy, he actually fell back in surprise). He started to cough a little as dust flew around from the sudden movement.

Some were able to recompose themselves as others just stared in amazement.

Phantom had stopped coughing and was now just trying to catch his breath. His muscles ached and he felt as though he was about to pass out (again).

' _Ugh... Did anyone get the plate of the truck that hit me?'_

Canary bent down in front of the white-haired teen, so he would be able to see her, and asked with concern in her voice, "Are you alright Danny?"

He didn't have the energy to talk, so he just nodded.

Her eyebrows furrowed and she said with the same tone, "Danny...your heart stopped. You had absolutely no pulse or heartbeat..."

Phantom furrowed his eyebrows at this and then finally processed what she was saying and chuckled.

The Leaguers just looked on with confusion and some (Flash) thought he was going insane.

The white-haired teen stopped laughing and explained in a low voice, " _ **How... dense... are you people? I'm... a**_ **ghost** _ **... remember?"**_

Sudden realization dawned on all of the adults, but Flash was still really confused. "But, you can't just die and un-die when you transform?!"

Danny laughed softly but didn't say anything else as he began to focus on just trying to stay conscious.

Canary looked worriedly at him but then turned to the other Leaguers, "What do you want to do?"

Batman silently walked over to Phantom again (behind him where he couldn't see him). He bent down and looked over the large dark green and black streak/wound again. "Do you know what this is injury is or how you got it?"

Phantom remained silent nor acknowledged that he had even heard Batman.

Batman looked back at the wound and wanted to further examine it. He just barely grazed it when Phantom yelped in pain as green arcs of lightning raced across his body for a few seconds. When the lightning disappeared Phantom was left breathing shakily.

Batman turned and looked to the other Leaguers. "We need to take him to the infirmary...the wound isn't too bad, but I would like to examine it more."

Phantom heard this and began to try to lift himself up, but someone gently forced him back down with their hand. The ghost groaned in protest but the hand wouldn't let him up. "Stay down Phantom. Superboy, Aqualad. Take him to the infirmary, we'll be there in a minute."

They both nodded and Superboy half-carried Phantom while Aqualad stayed beside him, just in case he needed any assistance.

Batman looked at Superman and the latter nodded in understanding. Superman turned to the rest of the Team and told them to go and relax, and that training was canceled. As they were leaving Beast Boy turned to GL and asked, "Will you and Phantom be alright?"

GL looked surprised at the question but quickly answered, "Uh yeah, of course, we'll both be fine..."

Beast Boy gave him a small smile and ran off to catch up with the others.

Batman turned to Superman and the other asked, "What did you want to talk about?"

Batman crossed his arms. "The fact that when Green Lantern said something, that set Phantom off. He thought that he was fighting someone else instead of Lantern."

All the present Leaguers nodded in agreement but Canary was the one to speak, "We have to be careful when we start asking him questions. Especially about this 'Pariah Dark'. He never mentioned anyone by that name in any of our sessions."

"Well it's not like they were exactly buddies," GL stated sarcastically.

Batman ignored that comment and said, "We also need to see what's causing these sudden flashbacks and visions. That is what you wanted to talk about isn't it Canary?"

Canary nodded her head, "Yes. When the Team came in I automatically noticed that something was slightly off about Danny."

Superman nodded in agreement, "Yeah, I noticed it too."

Canary looked back at Batman and continued, "So when I looked at M'gann and Conner for insight, they just mouthed the words, 'visions' and 'flashbacks'. But that's what confused me... Danny's had visions and flashes of his past before when he had first gotten here, but after that, they just seemed to disappear."

The Leaguers all began to think this information over when Flash decided to ask a question, "What do you mean by 'visions'?"

Batman decided to answer for her, "'Visions' is actually a code word we use so we don't cause any unnecessary panic or have the younger Team members worrying. When we say 'visions' we actually mean 'hallucinations'."

Superman, Flash, and Green Lantern's eyes went wide at this. "He used to have _what?!_ " Flash exclaimed in disbelief.

Canary sighed as she began to explain, "It's not _exactly_ hallucinations, but definitely something like it. From past sessions and 'talks' with Danny, Batman and I have come up with the conclusion that it may be a result of bad times, or-" Canary hesitated and the other Leaguers noticed. "Or what?" GL asked. Canary took a calming breath before finishing, "Or it could be a result of PTSD."

Everyone but Batman blinked at her and an awkward silence lasted for a good time before GL spoke up again.

"Wait. Hold up. You think, that a sixteen-year-old kid, who hasn't even graduated High School yet, has _PTSD_?" he asked incredibly.

"Actually... that would help explain a lot of things."

Everyone's attention turned towards Superman, who seemed to be in deep thought.

"How so?" Flash asked.

"Well, think about it. He always makes sure he's constantly aware of his surroundings, he's constantly looking for a deeper message when told something, and he's always been pretty tense around large crowds or new people."

Everyone thought this over and ultimately agreed that it did actually explain a lot of the mysteries behind Danny.

The Leaguers seemed to think about this for a second before GL spoke up, "Look, the thing is, I shouldn't have provoked him like that. I simply wanted to see how strong the kid was, not completely set him off. And the fact that he was able to still save my sorry ass, is more than enough to impress me."

"What do you think that wound is?" Superman asked Batman.

Batman narrowed his eyes and explained his theory, "I was thinking the same thing earlier, but I have a theory now. During the fight, Green Lantern used his ring to form a fist. But when he attacked, Phantom turned intangible, letting it pass right through him. But I noticed that he stumbled. Sometime when he phased through the fist, the energy of the ring disrupted his powers, causing his intangibility to fail."

"So basically what you're saying is that that wound came from when he was inside of my ring's energy construct?"

Batman shook his head, "What I'm saying is, the energy the ring produces can effect Phantom... which means, we have found a way to disrupt Phantom's powers."

There was a long silence before Flash broke it, "So how does the whole half-ghost thing work out exactly? I'm still having a hard time processing this."

Superman only turned to him and said, "I guess that's something you'll have to ask yourself..."

The Leaguers all turned and began to walk towards the infirmary, ready to ask questions and hopefully receive answers.


	5. Chapter 4

Danny smiled as Gar bounced in excitement as they walked down the hallway towards the Mission Room. The small green boy was grinning like a mad man as he bounced up and down, with a new fiery determination in his green eyes.

"Gar, chill out! You might end up hurting yourself with all that jumping!" Danny laughed.

Gar stopped jumping but he still had his wide grin plastered onto his face.

"I'm sorry Danny but I just can't help it! We're finally going on a mission again!" Gar exclaimed with excitement.

Danny shook his head at the young boy's antics, but still managed to keep his smile.

"Gar it has only been two weeks since our last mission. It wasn't that long ago," Danny replied amusedly.

Gar fake pouted, but it only made Danny laugh even more. "Yeah but I just can't help but feel like we might actually get some action this time, around!"

After Gar's last exclamation, they both continued down the hallway in silence with their good moods.

By the time they arrived in the Mission Room to be debriefed, the Zeta-Tubes were already being powered on and the computer began to announce the designations.

" _Batman-02, Red Tornado-16, Nightwing-B01."_

Danny and Gar joined the rest of the Team members, as they awaited their assignments. At least, until Kid Flash, Impulse, and Beast Boy started debating on what they were going to do on our mission.

"-about Dr. Freeze?" Danny overheard Kid Flash ask.

"Nah...OH! Maybe we're going to go take down another one of Lex's projects!" Impulse theorized.

"No, no, no... I think we're going to go take down somebody from the Light or maybe even the Injustice League!" Beast Boy argued.

"Close."

The three debating teens turned around to see Batman, Red Tornado, and Nightwing approaching them.

Danny smiled at the red and yellow hero. When Danny had met Tornado for the first time, he had to admit that he was kind of impressed. The hero was a robot of an all red metal 'skin' if you will. He had no ears or nose, and his eyes and mouth sockets made him look somewhat 'emotionless'. He had a yellow T symbol on his chest and a yellow arrow on his forehead.

Now back to what he was originally saying. He wasn't impressed by the fact Red Tornado was a robot, (he had to thank Skulker for that), in fact, he was impressed at how emotionally attached Tornado was towards the Team. Unlike other AI systems or robots he's met, Tornado has a way of actually caring for the young teenagers, almost like how a parent would feel protective of a child. And that's what really makes Danny enjoy the company of him as well. Unlike the other Leaguers, Danny felt more open towards Tornado and felt that he could have a somewhat 'normal' conversation with him (except for Black Canary of course). In short, Red Tornado, to Danny, was more comfortable to be around than the other Leaguers.

Everyone turned their attention to the Caped Crusader, who was now bringing up pictures on the holographic computer.

Batman gave Danny a quick glance, correction, _glare_ , and then continued to debrief everyone on the mission.

The floor was momentarily the most interesting thing in the room, as Danny turned his head away from the adult heroes.

_"Why didn't inform us that you were having visions again?"_

_Danny remained silent as he sat on the medical bed/table. He was still in his Phantom form, his energy hadn't been completely depleted from the fight with GL._

_The Leaguers present, stood around the table closely, but not too close to where Danny would feel claustrophobic. While, Aqualad and Superboy had already left the room to join the other members, but Danny noticed, were hesitant before they left._

_"Phantom."_

_Danny looked up fearfully at the Caped Crusader._

_"Why?"_

_He opened and closed his mouth, trying to desperately find a way around the question without revealing what all happened on his last mission._

_The Leaguers looked on as he tried to form words. But resulted in Canary sighing and then tried to change the subject, even though they WOULD be discussing his mental health later._

_"Who was that person you mentioned?"_

_Phantom looked over towards her and seemed to choose his words carefully, before speaking with a slightly hoarse voice, "_ _**An old enemy of mine..."** _

_Canary held back a sigh of relief as she thought, 'At least, we finally got him to speak...'_

_"But why did you react so violently when Green Lantern taunted you?" she asked._

_Danny looked down again and his eyes seemed to darken before saying, "_ _**Because those were the same words that he had said before doing something that would haunt me for the rest of my life..."** _

Danny blinked as he was brought back to the present and he quickly turned his attention back to the debriefing.

"-rumor is Joker is now in this warehouse. Your mission is to find out what his new 'plan' is and if the Injustice League is somehow involved. This is a Recon mission ONLY. Nightwing will decide teams."

' _At least I didn't miss anything too important..'_

Batman began to walk back towards the Zeta-tubes but stopped momentarily in front of Danny. He leaned towards Danny's ear and whispered, "The mentors will be watching this mission, so I would advise you to not to endanger the mission, nor the Team itself. Do you understand what I am implying?"

Danny crossed his arms and looked at Batman and gave him the 'scary eyes', his eyes flashing his other half's bright neon green. " _ **Perfectly,"**_ he replied with venom and annoyance with his Ghostly Echo.

_"What did he do?"_

_"_ _**That's none of your business.** _ _"_

_Phantom and Batman had a momentary 'glare-down' as neither were going to back down._

_"How does the whole 'Halfa-thing' work anyways?"_

_Phantom looked over at Flash and blinked, "_ _**What?"** _

_Flash sighed and tried his best to explain, "The whole 'half-ghost' and 'half-human' thing? You explained HOW you di- I mean got your Ghost powers, but you never really explained HOW the whole thing works. Do you just DIE every time you transform or something?"_

_Phantom stared at the Flash for a moment but then busted out laughing._

_The Leaguers just looked on in utter confusion._

_After a few moments, Phantom calmed himself down enough to explain, "_ _**To be completely honest, I don't really even know MYSELF. Sam, Tucker, Jazz, and I all just came up with different theories and kind of just threw them around. So I don't actually have a SOLID answer or explanation... But man- ha!- I've never heard THAT one before!"** _

_The Leaguers were dumbfounded. Even HE didn't know how his powers worked!?_

_"_ _**But-"** _

_Batman narrowed his eyes, "'But' what?"_

_Danny looked up at them with a now deadly serious expression._

_"_ _**I try not to think about it too much."** _

_GL furrowed his eyebrows together, "Why not? Aren't you even, at least, a tiny bit curious as to how you're 'half-ghost'?"_

_Danny looked away from them and started rubbing his neck._

_"_ _**That's just it... 'Am I human? Or am I a ghost?' 'Am I alive? Or am I dead?' 'Do I belong to the living? Or with ghosts?' 'Is one race going to be more accepting of me than the other?' 'Why or** _ **would,** _**people treat me differently if I were one or the other?' I don't usually think about it because in the end... I'll end up tearing myself apart over it. And I'll just end up with more questions than answers, and I'm pretty sure I'm not going to like the answers."** _ _He chuckled and gave the Leaguers a sad smile. "_ _**Everything aside, it's as the saying goes, 'Curiosity killed the cat'..."** _

Batman narrowed his eyes at Danny but proceeded to walk back to the Zeta-tubes.

" _Batman- 02."_

The Team gave Danny a questioning look as his face regained its passive look, but no one decided to voice their thoughts.

Everyone's attention was now on Nightwing as he gave them all a small smile of encouragement.

"Alright, Team. Today there will be two teams. Team A consists of Kid Flash, Miss Martian, Robin and I. Team B consists of Aqualad, Superboy, Impulse, and Artemis. Beast Boy and Phantom are back up if needed. Team A will infiltrate the warehouse and try to collect as much information as possible. Team B will be the lookout, positioned around the perimeter of the warehouse. Questions? Good. We'll leave in an hour; dismissed."

Once the debriefing ended, everyone went back to what they were doing before.

Right when Danny was about to leave the room, he felt a hand on his shoulder and he turned to see Connor, Dick, and Red Tornado behind him. (Yes, Danny does know Nightwing's secret identity; you can blame a certain speedster for that.)

"Are you alright Danny?" Connor asked.

Danny shrugged his hand off and started to walk away again, but this time, Dick made him stop.

"Something's bothering you," Red Tornado stated, accusingly.

The former turned around and almost yelled, "Well maybe if the League stopped thinking of me as a threat and a no-good troublemaker, no matter HOW many times I've helped the Team, I would feel a whole lot better."

Dick and Connor (Red Tornado too, in his own way) looked a bit surprised at his 'almost' outburst, but Dick said, "Danny the League doesn't see you that way, they're just worried that-"

Danny's eyes flashed green, and the temperature in the room dropped a few degrees, as he interrupted Dick, "That I'll endanger their kids and that they will get hurt because of me."

"That's not-"

"Look Nightwing, your 'mentor' Batman, doesn't quite trust me, the League doesn't trust me and as of late, I'm starting to think that the League only cares for their protégés well-being. Heck, ever since the GL incident, if I were to get hurt, maybe even killed, for trying to protect you guys, the League would still think of me as a threat! Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go get ready for a mission."

Danny then turned around and stormed off, thus taking the cold atmosphere with him. Leaving Nightwing, Superboy, and Red Tornado awkwardly standing in the Mission Room.

Red Tornado turned towards Nightwing, "The League does not want to hurt Danny, nor would they not care if he was harmed."

Nightwing opened his mouth to say something, but was interrupted by Superboy, "You really don't get it do you?"

The two heroes turned their attention to him.

"Back when Danny was in his last dimension his entire city thought of him as evil, even though fought against the 'bad guys'. But he still remained a hero, no matter what he went through, no matter how much they despised him and wanted to hurt him because of what he was. Yet he still fought. Even when his own parents tried to hunt him. But when his friends, the only people he ever trusted and who saw him as a hero, betrayed him, he couldn't stand the hate any longer. It was because his friends had encouraged him to keep going, did he remain at home and fight the evils of his world. But their betrayal had finally crossed the line. That's why Danny ran away, and it was all because people didn't trust him enough, to see him as the hero he really was, and it was all because he was a ghost."

The other two heroes stared in awe and disbelief as Superboy walked away to go and try to find, the now upset, Danny.

*Time Skip*

The dark blue and purple clouds flew by in blurs aginst the midnight blue and black sky as Danny stared out of the window in the bioship.

Danny sat the closest to the entrance of the bioship on the left side (if you were looking through the center of the room, with back towards the main window). (Going around the room- from Danny moving forward) Then Beast Boy, Impulse, Robin, Kid Flash, Nightwing, Aqualad, Artemis, and Superboy. Then, of course, Miss Martian at the 'driver's seat'.

There was little chatter on the ship, with Impulse, Beast Boy, and Robin making a little conversation. Kid Flash and Artemis were arguing/bickering again. Lastly, Aqualad and Miss Martian were having a quiet conversation as well.

Danny's attention went to his uniform, before looking back out the window. After Danny had joined the Team (and had to explain that he has both a human AND ghost form), Nightwing and Martian Manhunter had decided to create a uniform for his human form (He still has his usual Hazmat suit for his Ghost form). The uniform looked similar to that of his old blue DOOM game suit (it actually looks similar to a blue TRON suit). The suit was almost completely black with ice/frost blue accents. The blue accents were on his shoulders, his sides (kind of like Beast Boy's), the sides of his arms, the outer sides of his legs, and the underside of the gloves, along with blue lines across the soles of his black boots. He also occasionally wore a black cloak depending on the mission. Today, the cloak wasn't needed.

Danny remained deathly quiet as he stared out the window thinking back to the conversation from two days earlier.

_"So now that, that question is out of the way, we're back to where we started," GL declared._

_Danny turned back to Canary who, in turn, asked, "Danny who exactly was Pariah Dark? What did he do that was so unforgivable?"_

_The former took a monotone/deadpan look and replied with, "_ **No**."

_Batman narrowed his eyes, "What do you mean 'no'?"_

_Danny turned to him, "_ **No, I've told you too much already** _."_

_That's when GL finally blew it, "Listen, kid. You need to tell us who Pariah Dark is/was whatever. Because we've only seen ADULTS act that violently to an old enemy and that's rarely. You're a TEEN! A TEEN shouldn't have reacted that badly to something! Which means that whatever this/that guy did, you need to spill NOW. Because if this guy were to somehow 'show up' we don't want to have to be responsible for the destruction of property and the deaths or injuries of innocent people! Now spill!"_

_The Leaguers all blinked at GL's outburst, but they all nodded in agreement._

_Danny glared at the green leaguer and spat back, "_ **Because if I tell you, you'll just be disappointed! And just like everybody else, you'll try to talk me into 'owning up to my responsibility', 'accepting the way things are', and try to make me do something, that I DON'T WANT TO DO!"**

_The Leaguers stepped back in surprise, almost dumbfounded, at his reaction to GL's outburst, but Batman wouldn't give in.._

_"Explain, now."_

_Danny's eyes glowed bright neon green/white as he hopped off the bed and practically snarled back. "_ **You know what?! Forget it! I'm sick and tired of you trying to interrogate me all the damn time! I'll heal in a few hours, so don't even bother with the whole, you're still injured excuse! I wish you good night** _**Justice League** _ **!"**

_Right before he walked out of the room, loosely holding his side, he turned to GL. "_ **I hope you can forgive me for lashing out at you during our 'fight' and I wish you well** _," Danny said with a somewhat collective tone._

_GL had wide eyes for a second before he nodded at Danny, who then turned and left the room. Leaving behind a group of confused/irritated Leaguers._

"Phantom!"

Danny quickly looked up to see everyone staring at him with worried looks.

"Are you alright?" Miss Martian asked.

Danny only nodded in response.

Everyone else looked towards one another, not wanting to upset him, the Team didn't push it.

After being on the bio-ship for more than an hour and a half, Miss Martian announced, "We're about five minutes out from our destination."

"Phantom go-"

But Danny stood up without a sound, stopping Nightwing in the middle of his sentence, and transformed into his Ghost form. He made his way to the center of the room and kneeled down to touch the floor of the bioship. His hands and eyes glowed blue as he turned the entire ship invisible to the outside world.

A while back, the Team discovered the difference between 'camouflage' and 'invisible/intangible'. Camouflage can still be detected and it causes a disturbance in the air, which some villains can see or detect, half the time causing their cover to be blown. So when they discovered Danny could make the entire ship invisible AND intangible, their recon and covert missions have been WAY more successful.

Nightwing looked at Miss Martian and Superboy, and all three of them shared worried and uneasy looks. But they did not act upon it.

"Team B get ready."

After about three minutes, Team B (now in stealth mode) were now ready to leave the bioship.

"Miss Martian link us up."

 _'Is everyone here?'_ Miss Martian asked via mind link.

' _No,'_ Superboy answered.

Nightwing turned to Phantom and said out loud, "Phantom we need you to link up."

Phantom turned to Nightwing, sighed and nodded back. He closed his eyes and seemed to think for a minute before opening his eyes again and saying over the mind link, ' _I'm here.'_

' _Phantom are you alright? You've been 'off' since the debriefing...No scratch that- You've been off for the past few_ days _._ ' Kid Flash asked.

Phantom seemed to choose his words carefully before saying, ' _I've just been having a rough week...'_

Kid Flash nodded as if understanding, before turning his attention back to Nightwing.

' _Team B, you're a go.'_

Team B, then left the bioship and went to their designated positions.

' _Team B in position,'_ Aqualad announced.

' _Team A get ready,'_ Nightwing ordered.

After the bioship was left hovering over the warehouse (with Beast Boy and Phantom still inside), Team A left the bioship and began to sneak inside.

*Time Skip*

Team A was in position and was observing the Joker's 'helpers'. They were working busily at long tables covered in wires and pieces of metal. Others were busy walking/pushing around carts filled with what looked like completed mechanisms. As Team A looked on from the rafters, they quickly began to observe everything within the 'now inhabited' warehouse.

 _'Impulse stop getting distracted on the mission!'_ Artemis yelled over the mind link.

_'I'm sorry if there are some really nice flowers around my position!'_

' _You two do not start, we need to stay focused on our miss-'_ Aqualad began.

' _What do the flowers look like?'_ Beast Boy asked.

' _They're actually pretty in a weird way, they're red like roses with-'_

' _Guys! The mission!_ ' Kid Flash scolded.

' _Hey, Danny what is the whole silence thing?'_ Impulse asked.

' _Yeah, what is with that lately? You've been quiet the entire time we've been on this mission. No, wait, ever since the debriefing! What's up?'_ Beast Boy asked.

The link was silent as everyone waited for a response. After a few seconds, they all heard a sigh over the link.

' _Batman told me that the Team is being monitored by their mentors on this mission and he 'advises' me that I not do anything to endanger the mission nor the Team-'_

' _WHAT?!'_ Most of the Team yelled.

' _Ow_.' Danny replied.

' _Sorry... but seriously?! Their monitoring us?!'_ Kid Flash exclaimed.

' _Maybe they wish to see how well we interact with one another?'_ Aqualad suggested.

Everyone seemed to be thinking for a moment before Superboy interrupted their thoughts, ' _Why would Batman think you would 'endanger the Team'? And you've been on plenty of missions before.'_

' _Yeah well, ever since that 'Green Lantern' incident, the League is having a tough time trusting me... Now can we please drop the subject? I would like to have one of OUR NORMAL mission conversations for once...'_

' _Fine... Hey, Robin? How's that training going?_ ' Impulse asked teasingly, knowing the type of question would annoy Phantom.

Everyone could practically _see_ him fuming.

Robin smiled knowing what Impulse was doing, so he played along.

' _Pretty good, I think I finally got those spin kicks down_.'

Everyone groaned (except Impulse, Robin, and Nightwing).

' _Guys, stop messing with Danny,'_ Miss Martian intervened.

' _Nice, I've been working on my back flips, they are actually coming along quite nicely.'_

' _NIGHTWING!'_ Miss Martian scolded.

Everyone ended up laughing silently, except for Superboy, Aqualad, Miss Martian, and Phantom.

' _Haha very funny. You know what? I am so done with this conversation. Call me when you need back up.'_

' _Phantom?'_ Kid Flash asked teasingly. Nothing.

' _Aww come on Danny, we were just-'_

Just then Robin was interrupted by a blood-chilling voice, "Hello boys! How are we doing on progress, hmm?"

Team A immediately turned their attention to the center of the warehouse, as the one and only Joker came walking up to a table and picked up a metal piece to examine.

Joker was a tall, slender man, with chalk white skin, ruby red lips and a head of bright green hair falling down in a mop style. He was wearing a purple suit with a flower on his lapel, skinny leg pants, a skinny purple tie and a silver chain at his waist.

' _Heads up, Joker is here,_ ' Kid Flash said to everyone.

"Progress is doing very well sir! We should be done with all the devices in a matter of a few days-"

Joker slammed his fist on the table causing some of the minions to tremble in fear.

"NO!" But Joker quickly corrected himself and dusted off the invisible dust from his jacket. "I mean, no. That is unacceptable, I expect these to be done in a matter of hours, are we clear?" he asked the minion with an innocent smile.

"O-of course, sir!" the minion replied then quickly went back to work ordering people around.

The Joker turned around and walked further down the table, picking up two materials and playing with them.

"Ahh, such a fine piece to make such a wonderful display! Who knew that rare flowers and metals worked so beautifully together! Hahahaha!" The Joker laughed insanely.

That's when everything went wrong.

' _SB LOOK OUT!_ ' Artemis yelled.

Superboy suddenly came crashing through the warehouse and onto the opposite side of the building. Because of the amount of impact on the wall, the entire building shook, including where Team A was hiding. They quickly jumped off and they landed onto the floor of the warehouse below.

' _What happened to stay put!?'_ Robin yelled over the mind link.

' _Some guy spotted SB and shot at him with a weird looking gun!'_ Artemis explained quickly.

"Well, well, well, if it isn't the children. How wonderful of you to swing by! I was just thinking of you, you know!"

' _Phantom to Team A and B; what's going on down there?!'_

Team B, rushed into the giant hole in the wall, to join Team A, who were now fighting off Joker's minions.

' _Robin to Phantom; Our cover is blown, Plan B has now been activated!'_

' _Nightwing should we move in!?'_ Beast boy asked.

' _No! Stay in position until I say!'_

The two Teams continued to fight off the minions and were winning. At least, until Joker's backups came running into the room, almost overrunning the Team.

Nightwing and Robin were back to back, Miss Martian and Artemis were fighting together, Kid Flash and Impulse were zooming through and knocking people unconscious, and lastly, Aqualad and Superboy were fighting side by side.

' _This isn't working!'_ Kid Flash yelled.

Nightwing quickly observed the situation and then came to a decision. ' _Nightwing to Phantom and Beast Boy; Backup needed.'_

Not even ten seconds later, a green hawk came diving through a window and attacked the closest people to it, which in is this case, was Artemis, and Miss Martian's group of minions.

Joker laughed saying, "Your backup was the kid shape-shifter?! HA! You children really do amuse me at times!"

" _ **I wonder if you'll still be amused when I blow your head off..."**_

The Joker's smile seemed to falter as he turned his head slightly to see Phantom standing behind him with a glowing green hand pointed at the back of his head. ( **A/N: Just because Danny doesn't hurt humans doesn't mean he can't make threats** ) Joker's eyes seemed to flicker with fear for a second as he stared into the haunting neon toxic green eyes of the ghostly teenager.

The minions stopped attacking for a moment, all shocked to see Joker falter in his smile.

But then the Joker smiled (the minions immediately began to fight again) and said with pretending glee, "Why if it isn't good old' Casper!"

Phantom's face remained deadpan as he replied in a monotone voice, " _ **Shut it, clown**_."

Joker fake pouted and said, "That wasn't very nice... But did Bird Boy over there know that I had back up too?"

Danny's eyes went wide as he turned intangible, to let the giant oversized hammer pass through him (almost a second too late).

He quickly flew into the air and turned to see a woman dressed in a black and red suit, with diamond patterns on her right thigh, left shin, right shoulder, and left forearm. Her skin was powered white, her lips were burgundy, she wore a black mask similar to that of Robin's, she wore red and black gloves and boots. And on top of her head was a 'Joker's hat' that was half red and black with a white cotton ball like things on the ends of each side.

"Took you long enough Harley dear!" Joker said with a sigh of annoyance.

The woman 'Harley' pouted, "I'm sorry Mistah J! But I had to deal with the transportation issue!"

Joker then turned his attention back to Phantom and said, "Casper! I'm sorry my dear boy, let me introduce you! This dear here is Harley Quinn. Harley, meet Phantom, but I call him Casper."

Harley waved to Phantom with a smile on her face, "Hello cutie! Harley Quinn pleased to meetcha!"

Phantom face faulted at her remark, and asked over the mind link, ' _Please do not tell me I have to fight her?'_

' _Sorry Phantom! Just try to hold her off as long as possible until one of us can come and take care of her!'_ Nightwing replied slightly amused.

"Harley if you would be a doll and handle Casper for me?" Joker asked.

Harley smiled and put the hammer on her shoulder as she walked towards Phantom. "Sure thing Puddin!"

Phantom dropped to the ground and got into a fighting position. Harley was the first to attack.

She charged towards him and swung the hammer at him.

"You know? You're actually kinda cute!"

He turned intangible and then shot her hammer away, leaving them both to fight hand-to-hand.

" _ **Sorry, but I'm not planning on joining the dark side anytime soon!"**_ Phantom said as he dodged her right punch.

Harley smiled brightly as she went to punch him again, but he blocked her easily. "Now you're just cuter!"

Phantom was officially creeped out by this woman, and it didn't help that he was blushing green now either.

She comically gasped and asked, "Is that your blush!? OHMYGOSHOHMYGOSHOHMYGOSH!" She then squealed like a school girl and jumped up and down in delight.

Phantom didn't even have to turn to see Nightwing, Kid Flash, and Robin, he could just _hear_ them laughing their butts off.

Joker watched in amusement as Harley fought Phantom, but then decided it was time to flee, for when he looked around, he saw that the children had AGAIN defeated all his 'helpers' and were now staring at the present fight. He laughed silently as he slipped into the shadows. ' _Looks like I get to use Plan B after all...'_

" _ **Guys a little help here please!?**_ " Phantom exclaimed at his laughing Team mates, some of them anyways.

Harley continued to fight and flirt with Phantom for the next two minutes of their battle. Harley went in for another punch, and Phantom was about to block it when she switched tactics and grabbed his arm and then pulled him closer to her, and she gave him a quick peck on the cheek before pushing him away.

"Ooh! You're cold blooded too?! You're just becoming more attractive by the minute!"

By the time Miss Martian was finally able to knock Harley unconscious, Phantom was blushing a deep forest green as he tried to wipe away the red lipstick on his cheek.

Phantom looked over and frowned and blushed even more at his teammates. Nightwing, Robin, and Kid Flash were almost howling with laughter. Impulse, Artemis, Beast Boy and Aqualad were smiling and trying to hold back laughter. While Superboy and Miss Martian just looked amused.

( *Watchtower*- Green Arrow and Flash were laughing their butts off; Superman, Martian Manhunter, and Aquaman smiled and chuckled; and Batman just looked mildly amused.)

After everyone had calmed down (a.k.a.- Nightwing, Robin, and Kid Flash), they began to move the unconscious minions to the walls of the warehouse, before tying them up.

 _'Besides Joker escaping, that's pretty much everything. Let's head back to base so we can report what we were able to find. Miss Martian, you can unlink us now,'_ Nightwing announced.

They all walked towards the hole in the warehouse wall and were all chatting quietly amongst each other. Superboy, Aqualad, and Kid Flash were in the front discussing the weapon used on Superboy earlier. Beast Boy, Impulse, and Robin were in the middle, as they all looked around for what could be their souvenir. Lastly, Miss Martian, Artemis, and Nightwing were near the back, having a conversation about what Joker was up to. Phantom was in the back and right when they were about to exit, the Joker came-out-of-nowhere. "Going somewhere children?" he asked with an evil grin.

Everyone quickly got into a fighting stance, but the Joker only said, "Tsk, tsk, tsk. Now, now, now let's not resort to fighting. I only wanted to talk."

Nightwing stepped towards him and said, "Sorry Joker, but your little game is over."

The Joker then gave him an evil and insane smile as he retorted, "Sorry bird boy, but the joke is on you!"

With his advanced hearing, Phantom was able to hear a metal CLINK come from overhead. He looked up and saw a metal ring falling right above Nightwing, and time seemed to slow down. Phantom, being the closest to him, pushed him out of the way into the others (where most of his teammates then fell down), but wasn't able to escape the ring's path himself. It landed with a loud BANG and CLANK, only for Phantom to realize that the metal ring was 6x6 feet and it actually encircled him. Upon closer inspection, the ring seemed to be big and bulky, but when it landed on the ground, it sounded as though it was hollow.

" _ **What?!"**_

"Or should I say, the Joke is on HIM! HAHAHA!" the Joker laughed evilly, as he pressed a button on the remote in his right hand. The Team sat up in time to watch with Phantom, as the metal ring opened to reveal flowers that looked similar to that of rose blossoms, with purple-trimmed black stems and leaves.

Phantom's eyes widened in shock as he realized what Joker planned to do. As such, he tried to jump out of the metal ring, emphasis on _'tried_ '. Because before he could even move a muscle, red electricity seemed to lunge at him from all sides, keeping him from escaping the metal contraption.

At least, until the effects of the flowers kicked in.

He collapsed onto the floor (first to his knees, then onto his side) as he gritted his teeth against the pain. It felt as though acid was being rubbed onto his skin, and a fire was running through his veins, burning and spreading throughout his entire body. And the only thing he could make sense of through the agonizing pain was the sickly, sweet smell of the blood-colored blossoms. Eventually, the pain became too much, and he screamed.

"PHANTOM!" The Team exclaimed as they watched in horror as the arcs of red electricity raced around his convulsing body. Faint, red steam rolled off of the strange flowers, matching the steam now rolling off of their teammate. They got into fighting positions and got ready to sprint towards their friend, only for the Joker to hold up a finger and wag it side to side.

"No, no, no children! Not unless you want me to end his afterlife sooner..." Joker threatened, putting a small pocket knife next to Phantom's neck.

The Team, in an attempt to save their teammate, stopped immediately, leaving them to resort to sending glares towards the Joker.

' _ **Nightwing what do we do?!'**_ Miss Martian and Artemis asked in almost full panic after the link was established again.

Joker sent them a cruel smile, before turning his attention towards Phantom. He then clicked a button on the remote in hand causing the ring to close.

Phantom was left gasping for air as soon as the flowers and electricity's effects were cut off. He laid there, slightly curling in on his side, taking in raspy breaths, and wincing or gritting his teeth at the every so often flickers of red electricity, that arced across his body. The pain from the blossoms still lingering, but not nearly as bad as just a few seconds ago.

The Joker then took the flower that was in his jacket pocket, the flower matching the same ones that were within the metal ring. He then put the knife into his left hand, along with the flower, and used his free hand to tightly grab Phantom's chin and turn the other's head towards him.

' _NIGHTWING!'_ Everybody yelled.

' _Activate Protocol 174!'_

( **A/N: Random protocol that chose a random number for...)**

"Do no know what this is my boy?" Joker asked as he stared into the dull neon green eyes of the hurt boy, with the cruel smile plastered on his face. "This here is a wonderful flower named the Muhjah. Its name is Arabic, meaning 'heart's blood' or 'soul'. It took awhile for me to find it, especially since it's location is apparently so secretive. But that's understandable since it is one of the very few rare plants that are actually compatible with weapons of destruction AND as a BONUS, they have 'anti-supernatural' abilities. Did you know that they're even rumored to have vanquished spirits of the undead? Hmmm... Would you like to test that theory, my ghostly friend?"

He then took the flower and attempted to rub the petals against the other's cheek, causing the other to try and pull back with a quiet hiss of pain. But the Joker held onto his chin and kept him from moving away, causing the flower's thorned leaves to scrape against Phantom's cheek. The scrape, or small cut, was bleeding green ectoplasm, but only just barely.

Joker released Phantom, as the latter began to cough as the sickly sweet smell came close to his face. He coughed into his gloved hand when he felt something thick and slightly sticky. He brought his hand away from his mouth and saw green liquid within his palm.

The Joker still had his cruel smile as stood up to look at the Team, but as he did his smile turned into a frown. He quickly turned back around as to find the missing Team member, but he turned too late. Because as soon as he turned around, a fist came flying towards his face.

The Joker flew through the air and hit the nearby wall next to him. He stood up shakily with rage filled eyes as turned towards the Team. "I warned you not to interfere, children! Now see what happens when you don't listen!" the Joker exclaimed. He held up the remote, but before he could press it Kid Flash quickly swiped it away from him.

The Joker smiled and laughed like a mad man. "You think that'll stop me?! HARLEY!"

"OK MISTAH J!"

"Quick! Grab Pha-"

But before Nightwing could finish his sentence, Phantom's agony filled screams filled the air again. Somehow Harley had gotten the ring to open back up again, and this time, it stayed open.

The Team quickly knocked Joker unconscious and then Kid Flash and Impulse took care of Harley.

They then turned their attention back to Phantom, who had now tapped into his 'Ghostly-Wail'. After what seemed like dragging minutes, they finally had gotten Phantom to stop using his Ghostly Wail.

Nightwing looked at the red electricity and the dark flowers, and then back to his screaming teammate. He became more worried when he noticed that the other's screams were now getting quieter. That's when Nightwing noticed how badly the situation was getting because as he looked on, Phantom began to flicker in and out of tangibility. ' _Dammit!_ ' he thought.

After some quick thinking, Nightwing quickly told Miss Martian to call the bioship next to the warehouse. He then turned to Phantom and carefully (but quickly) stepped over the metal ring, relieved that the red electricity nor the flowers effected him. He quickly knelt down next to Phantom. "Hang on Phantom, we're going to get you out of here!" He then turned to the rest of the Team, "Aqualad and Kid Flash, go get the medical supplies ready on the ship! Superboy come help me with Phantom! Everyone else gets on the ship! And be ready to leave immediately!"

Everyone quickly ran around and did as they were told, everyone was on the ship and ready to go by the time Nightwing and Superboy were ready to get Phantom.

"Alright, we're about to move you Phantom. I'm going to pick you up as quickly and gently as possible and give you to Superboy so he can carry you to the ship."

Phantom bit down another scream as he gave Nightwing a faint nod to let him know that he heard the other.

Nightwing mumbled, "Well here goes everything..."

He quickly reached for Phantom and quickly picked him up, only to have him hiss in pain as he seemed to pass through an invisible force field.

Nightwing quickly passed him off to Superboy who in turn ran/jogged with Nightwing towards the bioship.

They quickly took him into the room in the back, that worked as the 'medical room'. Miss Martian then quickly took off and set the coordinates to home. Aqualad proceeded to call the League.

"Aqualad to Justice League. This is an-"

"We are already aware of the situation Aqualad. Red Tornado, Dr. Fate, and I are already on our way to the Medical Bay on Mount Justice. Superman, Batman, and the Flash are on their way to the warehouse to arrest and obtain the Joker and Harley Quinn. Martain Manhunter out."

The Team stared in shock at the holo-screen of the window.

"I guess it's a good thing that our mentors decided to watch this mission..." Impulse said breaking the silence.

*Time Skip*

Everyone sat in long silence for about a half hour, before Artemis decided to speak up, "That was absolutely terrifying... I don't think I've ever seen somebody react so badly to something like that before. I mean, that was worse than Superman's weakness to Kryptonite or Martian's weakness to fire."

The present members all nodded their heads in agreement. Aqualad then added, "I agree. Whatever that flower was, the Muhjah, as Joker called it, must've been extremely hard to find, and it seemed as though it was only effective on ghosts and spirits."

There was a sniffle after another long silence and everyone turned to see Beast Boy with unshed tears in his eyes.

"Beast Boy?" Miss Martian put the bioship on auto-pilot before going over to Beast Boy and kneeling in front of him. "Gar, what's wrong?"

Gar looked up at her and seemed to struggle for words, eyes filled with sadness and pain.

"It's just that..."

Everyone's attention was now on a fidgeting Beast Boy.

"After mom had died...You guys took me in and you became my new family. And... ever since then, I never wanted to see my family get hurt ever again... and I never ever wanted to see you guys in pain... But today... today Danny-"

The Team watched with sad eyes as tears started to fall down Gar's green colored cheeks.

"He was in s-so much pain and I f-froze up. I c-couldn't do anything but helplessly w-watch as he was almost t-tortured to d-death right in front of m-me... And I knew that I s-should've helped o-or at least tried to s-save him..."

The tears were almost non-stop now, and now even Artemis and Miss Martian both had tears in their eyes'. Miss Martain hugged him as he cried/sobbed into her shoulder, "I-I almost saw him d-die, Sis. My b-big brother almost d-died right in front of me, j-just like Mom..."

They hugged each other as Gar cried and M'gann quietly let her tears fall as well.

They kept hugging each other until Nightwing walked in and said, "Miss Martian..."

She looked up at him and wiped her tears away, "Yes?" she asked.

He gave her a sad look but announced, "We need your help..."

Gar looked up, but Artemis was the one to ask the question. "Is he alright?"

Nightwing sighed. "He's still in a lot of pain, and we still don't know how badly those flowers had affected him. But he'll be fine once we get back to base."

Gar seemed somewhat okay with his answer and turned around to look out the window.

Miss Martian gave Nightwing a look, but nodded and followed him out of the room.

Once they entered the room Miss Martian couldn't help but feel heartbroken at the situation.

Danny (still in Phantom form) had his eyes shut tight and his breathing was uneven. He was still trembling from pain, but not only that, he was now shivering every so often, as if the room were cold. Luckily he wasn't screaming, only an every so often whimper.

Superboy sat near him with a worried and concerned look on his face.

"How long has he been like this?" she asked.

"The shivering just started about ten minutes ago, besides that, he's been like this since he got on the ship," Superboy answered worriedly.

She looked back at him and then at Nightwing. The later looked back at her and answered her unasked question, "We need you to make him unconscious. He absolutely refuses to go to sleep, and we're scared that if he remains conscious, he'll deplete all his remaining energy, causing him to pass out from energy depletion and turn human, and we'll have no idea how he'll react in his human form."

Miss Martian seemed to think about it for a second but reluctantly decided to do it.

She went to the end of the table/bed where Danny's head was. She placed her hands on the sides of his head, only to immediately pull them off. She looked up and said with concern in her voice, "He's warm..."

He nodded and said, "Yeah, we know. That's another reason why we need him to rest. We think he may be running a very high fever and it'll only get worse if he doesn't rest."

She looked back at Danny and placed her hands on the sides of his head again, before closing her eyes and concentrating.

She flinched but didn't remove her hands, "He's trying to keep me out."

Nightwing and Superboy watched as she concentrated harder.

After about a minute later, Danny's entire body seemed to relax, the trembling reduced to barely a shiver and his breathing evened out ever so slightly.

Miss Martian opened her eyes and turned to Nightwing and Superboy and she nodded her head, "He's out."

The other two both sighed in relief before all three made their way back to the front and sat in silence as they waited to arrive back to the cave.

*Time Skip*

Red Tornado, Dr. Fate, and Martian Manhunter watched as the Bioship landed in the Hanger.

Nightwing was the first one out of the ship, with Superboy behind him, carrying an unconscious Phantom on his back.

The three Leaguers quickly jogged/floated up to them and Nightwing explained why he was unconscious. Superboy hesitantly passed Phantom off to Dr. Fate, and he along with Red Tornado left towards the Medical Bay.

The Team watched with both relief and concern, but Martian Manhunter simply told them, "Young Phantom will be alright. As far as Dr. Fate knows, Phantom has dealt with these types of situations before."

Almost everyone's eyes widened at that. But Superboy was the one to step up and ask furiously, "Then why didn't he tell us how to stop the flowers from hurting him?!"

Martian Manhunter simply remained passive as he answered. "If you were surrounded by your worst physical weakness as well as being electrocuted to the point of immobility, would you be able to speak?"

Superboy opened his mouth to speak, but then thought against it and just kept his mouth shut.

"So how would you get rid of those flowers? And what were they really?" Artemis asked.

Martian Manhunter sighed and said, "Sadly Joker was telling the truth about what those flowers were called and what they were capable of. Only I believe Dr. Fate said something along the lines of, 'Phantom calls them by a different name'. As for how to get rid of the flowers or the effects, that is beyond my knowledge."

Everyone was in an awkward silence before Manhunter told them to go get some rest and to try to relax.

But all they did was go and sit down in the Living room, each one thinking about what happened that evening.

After a while they, each began to exchange what they noticed and everyone began throwing around theories.

"So you think those flowers may have not just been a trap for Danny? But Joker is somehow using them for new weapons and such?... To be honest, I can see Joker doing that... Maybe even the Injustice League too," Robin said.

"Noted," Beast Boy said quietly next to him.

"Speaking of which!"

Everyone turned to see Impulse pull out a motorcycle helmet from out-of-nowhere. "SOUVENIERS!"

Kid Flash and few others smiled at Impulse's care-free attitude.

Then Red Tornado walked into the Living Room.

Most of the Team stood up and waited with baited breaths for him to speak.

Red Tornado observed the Team's reactions before announcing, "Phantom will be alright, he's resting now..."

Everyone released a breath they didn't realize they were holding. Some members turned to others and smiled while others just looked relieved.

Superboy walked up to Red Tornado and asked, "Can we see him?"

Red Tornado was silent for a moment before he nodded his head.

Superboy, along with Beast Boy, were the first ones out of the room, jogging towards the Medical Bay.

*Time Skip*

Superboy slowly entered the Medical Bay and looked to where Phantom was laying down.

He was laying down on the bed with his eyes closed. He was still in his Ghost form, white hair messy, hazmat suit somewhat scratched (from the fight with Harley), and the cut that had been on his cheek was now completely gone.

As Superboy walked closer, Phantom opened his eyes and turned his head towards the other. Superboy almost gasped at how dim and dull his eyes were.

"Hi..." Superboy said with a concerned look.

Phantom gave him a sad smile and said, "Hey."

"How are you feeling?"

"I feel like I just got hit by a truck, aka- I feel like crap. Which brings me to the question of 'why do I keep getting hurt in this dimension'?" Phantom answered with a chuckle.

Superboy had a small smile and gave a small chuckle as well, causing Phantom to smile.

Superboy watched as the transformation rings formed and turned him back into his human form. Connor quickly shot towards him, only to stop as Danny only smiled again.

"Sorry, but it was getting hard to keep up that form..."

Connor sighed in relief and then nodded his head.

"So what-"

"DANNY!"

Connor was interrupted by a certain green child tackling Danny with a hug.

The 16-year-old halfa hesitated, but sat up and returned the hug and asked, "G-Gar? What are-"

Danny stopped mid-sentence as he looked down and saw the small 13-year-old crying into his shoulder. A flashback of the 'Nasty Burger' incident popped into his head and the death's of his friends and family. Danny remained shocked for a few moment, before finally snapping out of it and hugged Gar back tightly, finally understanding why the shape-shifter was acting like he was.

"Shhh...It's alright Gar, everything's alright now..."

Gar continued to cry into his shoulder as he said, "I-I thought you were going to d-d-die..."

Danny frowned and pulled Gar away from him, the other still sitting on the edge of the bed, and blue eyes locked with tear-filled green eyes. "I would never do that to you Gar. I will never let you go through the pain of losing friends and family ever again..."

He sniffed, "Y-you p-promise?"

Danny gave Gar a small smile and answered back, "I promise..."

Gar had a sad smile and hugged Danny again. They broke out of their hug as some of the other Team members came through the door, along with Martian Manhunter, Red Tornado, and Dr. Fate.

Danny smiled at the Team, and they all returned a smile.

Miss Martian gave him a small hug and said, "We're all so happy that you're alright..."

They broke out of their hug and Danny was about to say thanks but was interrupted by a sudden cough. The Team members looked confused and worried for a second, but it soon turned into fear as green and red were in Danny's palm as he brought his hand away from his mouth.

Dr. Fate quickly began to look around until he spotted the souvenir Impulse still had in hand. He quickly snatched the helmet from Impulse, ignoring the 'HEY!' that followed.

He reached into the helmet and pulled out one of the dreadful flowers from before and a note attached.

_Dear Children,_

_I do hope you enjoyed your little victory, but just know that I'm not done with my little game yet... We still have one more round to go!_

_TILL NEXT TIME! ~JOKER (and Harley)_

_P.S.~ Tell Ol' Casper I said 'hi'! HAHAHAHAHA!_

Dr. Fate quickly incinerated the flower, giving him the immediate effect he wanted. Danny had stopped coughing and was now simply panting while the Team just looked on in pure horror or concern.

Dr. Fate walked up to Danny and offered him a tissue/napkin.

Danny looked up at him and hesitated before accepting the napkin, "Thanks..."

He quickly began to wipe the blood off his hand and mouth.

"What were those flowers and would you even use them for?" Someone asked.

"Those flowers were used back during the times of Witch-hunting and burnings of Salem, Massachusetts. They were used for warding off evil spirits or ghosts. They were mostly used during witch burnings so spirits and ghosts wouldn't be able to save their 'mistress'."

Everyone looked at him with curious faces.

He sighed and stated, "Remember how I told you guys I entered a portal that once brought me to Salem Massachusetts during the witch hunting century? Let's just say I learned the hard way what those flowers could do..."

Most of the Team winced at the thought but nodded in understanding.

Dr. Fate approached him and asked/stated, "You know the flowers by a different name correct?"

Danny nodded his head. "Yeah, back in my old dimension they were known as Blood Blossoms."

Aqualad walked forward and asked, "'Were'?"

"Yep, they are now completely extinct..."

Everyone's eyes widened at that answer, but Nightwing asked the next question, "Then how did Joker get his hands on them?"

Dr. Fate and Danny shared a look, and Dr. Fate began to explain, "Now you must remember that Phantom is from a different dimension and just because something there doesn't exist-"

"-doesn't mean it can't exist here." Danny finished.

The Team had to think about their explanation but ended up accepting it in the end.

"So what exactly do those flowers do to a, uh, ghost?" Robin asked.

Danny took a sharp intake of breath but did answer his question. "A Blood Blossom, when used against a ghost, IS meant to ward them off. But should a ghost enter, say, a circle of Blood Blossoms? The flowers begin to, uh, 'disassemble' them if you will..."

The Team all just had confused faces, but Kid Flash was the one to voice everyone's thoughts, "Huh?"

"Oh boy...umm..." Danny gave Dr. Fate a look that clearly stated 'a little help here?'. But Dr. Fate only shrugged, Danny face-faulted at that and said, "Vi estas amikoj kun la Tempo Spirito mem kaj vi ne _scias_?" (You're friends with the Time Ghost himself and you don't know?)

All the Team members (figuratively) tilted their heads sideways. They already know that Danny can speak a few different languages, but they still just have to wonder sometimes.

Dr. Fate simply shrugged again, causing Danny to huff and roll his eyes before the latter then turned towards the Team and began to explain.

"Scientifically speaking. A Blood Blossom, um, releases its own form of a sort-of 'toxin' that basically feeds on or counteracts a ghost's ecto-signature or energy. The ghost then begins to, um, dismantle or disintegrate, slowly and painfully feeding off of (you could even say 'stealing') a ghost's ectoplasmic energy. Depending on the type of ghost, the process can either be quick or slow, painful or less painful."

"What does it do in your case?" Martian Manhunter asked, already guessing the answer.

Danny answered with no hesitation, "Since I'm a half-ghost, the process is slow but extremely painful. And not only do the Blood Blossoms steal my ectoplasmic energy-"

"They take away your life-force as well. That's it isn't it? That's the reason why you react so badly to them..." Connor asked.

Danny looked away, but his expression was all the Team needed to see, to confirm Connor's theory.

A long silence took hold of the room.

"Well, I think that's enough excitement for one day. I do believe it's time for you young heroes to head home and to bed?" Red Tornado asked, breaking the uncomfortable silence.

The Team all shared looks with one another and then looked back at the Leaguers. Impulse walked up to Nightwing and asked, "If it's crash with you and our mentor's, we'd like to stay the night so we can all 'hang out', you know?"

Nightwing and the other Leaguers all shared a look, but Nightwing ended up answering, "That's fine."

The Team immediately brightened up and started to help Danny off of the bed, then they all left the Medical Bay with excited faces. Thus, leaving the Leaguers and Nightwing with amused expressions.

For the rest of the night, the Team hung out. M'gann and Danny made dinner, the younger members had a video game tournament, then the older members had one, resulting in Kid Flash vs. Robin. At least, until Gar accidentally started a pillow fight- sorry- _war_ , and after they had calmed down, they all sat down and watched movies together. And overall, they all enjoyed each other's company, thus letting them completely put the day's events towards the back of their minds.

 

 **Explanations: Okay, 1.) Danny's Suit: I wanted Danny to have some kind of 'suit' or 'outfit' for when he isn't Phantom because it would not be wise to have him in 'civilian' wear while out on missions. 2.) Joker: Joker is actually based on the Joker from Batman: The Animated Series personality wise that is. In my opinion, I didn't really like the Joker's personality in Young Justice. 3.) Harley Quinn: I felt as though it would be kind of fun to bring Harley in, even if it wasn't for very long. I just thought we may be one of those small 'comical' characters within the story. 4.)Blood Blossoms: This was requested by one of my fellow readers and I do hope that it was enough to satisfy them as well as thank them for the idea. 5.)Why the effects reacted so badly and so long: Danny pretty much explained the 'reacted so badly' part. But I'll explain further; I didn't want the solution to be SO simple. Like 'eat the flower and it's over'...because that wouldn't be as suspenseful to read nor enjoyable to read. Another thing is that I wanted the effects to affect him longer because a.) he's half-ghost doesn't matter if he's human or not, and b.) I wanted it to be at least a bit more realistic. Come on, it's not like someone's going to be able to walk around and just be okay after an accounter like that.**


	6. Chapter 5

As Nightwing left the medical room on the bioship, M'gann looked over to see Connor staring sadly at the unconscious Danny.

"You know you really need to work on hiding it better..." M'gann said in a serious tone.

Connor, slightly jumping at the sound of her voice, turned to look at her with an eyebrow raised.

"What are you talking about?" he asked, severely confused.

M'gann dropped the serious act and let a small smirk make a way onto her face.

"You know full well what I'm talking about..."

Connor still had a confused look, when realization slapped him in the face; to the point where almost all the color drained from his face.

He started rubbing the back of his neck, "I-I don't know what you're talking about..."

M'gann's smirk turned into a full-blown smile as she said playfully, "To be honest, I think it's absolutely beautiful and that you shouldn't hide it."

Connor turned his head away from her and asked quietly, "Is it really that obvious?"

M'gann sighed in exasperation, "Look, you need to make a decision. Either tell everyone and just get it over with _OR_ , you need to start hiding it better."

Connor crossed his arms and pouted slightly, "Well I thought we were hiding it pretty well..."

M'gann shook her head as she giggled, "Well you're really not."

_M'gann's eyes were wide in shock and amazement as she stood by Connor's door that was slightly ajar._

_"Are you really sure about this?"_

_She had come to ask Connor something but stopped when she had heard voices. M'gann has been standing by the door for a good fifteen minutes now, and she wasn't about to stop anytime soon._

_"Look, Danny, all we have to do is keep it a secret for a while. At least until we feel like the time is right to tell the Team. Plus the fact that there is just too much drama going on right now and you're still not your complete self yet."_

_M'gann heard Danny sigh in defeat._

_"Alright... you have me convinced. But that doesn't mean that I'm still not scared of how everyone will react. I just don't want anyone else to hate me ag-"_

_"Danny," Connor interrupted, "No one is going to hate you, alright? Everything is going to be fine... I promise."_

DPYJDPYJDPYJDPYJDPYJDPYJDPYJDPYJ

BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!

Red lights flashed as the alarm went off on Mount Justice, signaling the Team.

Hurried footsteps were heard throughout the compound as all the Team members appeared in the debriefing room.

"What's going on?!" Kid Flash exclaimed with slight panic.

Right at that moment, Superman flickered on the computer screen.

"It seems Joker decided to forward his visit, in Gotham City. Several, luckily low-powered, bombs have already gone off on the outskirts. Police are already evacuating those parts of the city. Batman is already on his way, depart quickly so you can meet him there. Phantom-"

Phantom rose an eyebrow at the red and blue League member on the screen with suspicion clear in his eyes.

"You are to remain at Mount Justice unless called upon, Batman's orders. Superman out."

And with that, the computer screen went blank. Signaling for the Team it was time to leave.

The white-haired teen's eyes flashed a dangerously bright green as he balled up his fists and turned around, heading towards the hangar bay.

" _Phantom..._ " someone said warningly.

Phantom continued to walk as he replied, " _ **I'm going rather you guys like it or not."**_

Just then a whooshing sound was heard and Phantom's forearm was now being tightly held by Superboy.

"Like hell you are, you're staying here," Superboy declared sternly.

Phantom's glowing green eyes flashed dangerously bright as he turned to Superboy. " _ **No, I'm NOT. Now let go of my arm**_ ," he said with a deadly serious tone.

"Look Phantom, we don't  _want_  or  _need_ any more incidents."

Phantom suddenly yanked his arm away from the other's grasp and had a look of both anger and offense. " _ **Oh, so now I'm an 'incident'?"**_  he spat back as he turned to glare at the person behind him.

Superboy paled, realizing what was said and quickly began to rephrase himself, "What no! What I meant to say was that I-  _WE_  don't want anything to happen to you."

Phantom froze on the spot. He softened his glare as he and Superboy locked eye contact, both seeming to be having a silent conversation with one another. But neither one was backing down from their current position.

The Ghost Bot then said with sad and pleading eyes,  **"** _ **Please let me go with you... I understand why all of you DON'T want me to go. It's because of what Joker did last time, but please... I know I can help you guys and I have a feeling like I need to be there with you, to make sure that you are all alright."**_

All the Team members turned to Nightwing, who in turn sighed in defeat. "Fine. But you're back up  _ONLY_  if and when we call you, is that understood?"

Phantom instantly brightened up and replied with a smile, " _ **Yep!"**_ Then proceeded to the Hangar Bay with absolutely no signs of sadness or anger about him.

Nightwing sighed again and pinched the bridge of his nose, with a look that clearly said ' _I just got played'_.

Kid Flash then walk up to their leader and rested his elbow on the other's shoulder with a smirk. "Dude... I think you just got played."

Nightwing's emotions switched to annoyance as he retorted back, "Thanks, Captain Obvious."

That's when Miss Martian decided to walk up next to Nightwing and began scolding him. "Nightwing seriously?! Superboy had that situation handled!"

Speaking of Superboy, he was now walking off towards the Hangar Bay mumbling angrily to himself.

"Why do I even bother saying anything? I knew that he was most likely going to come anyways, but no, nobody wants to listen to what I have to say-"

"Superboy!" Miss Martian called.

But he didn't hear her as he just kept walking and mumbling to himself.

"Superboy! Superboy! Connor! Hey wait up!" she called after him, now floating in the direction of the Hangar Bay.

All the Team heard as they began to follow the others was Miss Martian sighing and saying to no one in particular, "There he goes again..."

*Time Skip*

"-Beastboy, you're with Impulse and Robin; Miss Martian and Superboy, you're with me."

The Team was currently ten minutes out from Gotham and Nightwing had just finished assigning the small teams of three.

Some of the teens were inside the Bioship while others were driving, running, and/or flying alongside (under) the Bioship.

"Team B will be searching and helping civilians either evacuate or helping them off the streets as well as helping the police and fire departments. Team C, will help locate any other bombs within the city. Team A is to find any of Joker's minions and keep them from causing havoc. Team B and C are to help Team A once they believe their assignment is completed and taken care of. When we arrive, Miss M, you need to keep the bioship above the city and in camouflage mode. Phantom, Artemis, you know the drill, backup ONLY. Artemis you can keep a lookout for any strays. Alright, we'll be arriving in five, so suit up and get ready to go."

The rest of the teens nodded and acknowledged Nightwing's orders and started to split off into their 'Teams' while Phantom and Artemis remained seated.

As soon as the Bioship landed on the top of a building, the teams bolted out and split up into separate directions.

Team B and C headed towards the outskirts while Team A went towards the downtown area. Meanwhile, Artemis took control of the bioship and raised it back into the air and flew it slowly over Gotham.

About twenty to thirty minutes later, the mind link came online.

' _Robin to Nightwing,'_  Wonderboy said over the mind link, ' _outskirts are clear and civilians have either evacuated or have taken refuge indoors.'_

' _Nightwing to Robin; good work, you and your team head over to where Team C is located and help them out.'_

' _Copy that_.'

Silence once again took hold of the bioship as both Artemis and Phantom kept a look out for any stragglers or possible trouble.

Neon green eyes squinted at what looked like 'shadow people', but then noticed one of them was wearing a motorcycle helmet with playing cards designed on the side of it.

' _Phantom to Team A_ ,' he deadpanned.

A few seconds went by before someone replied back.

' _This is Miss Martian, what's wrong Phantom?'_

' _I caught sight of a few minions, two maybe three blocks from where you're at. They're about to enter the downtown area, do you want for either Artemis or I to proceed?'_

There was another pause before Nightwing answered,  _'Kid Flash is on his way. But I do want you and Artemis to land the ship and find a place to scout. I want eyes on everything, alright? Artemis, use the special arrows you made and stop any minions from making their way to downtown. Phantom, if they escape Artemis's sight, assist with low power ecto rays.'_

' _Understood_ ,' Artemis replied back. She glanced at Phantom who in turn pointed to a large and tall building. Just big enough for them to both land the ship, and have a good view of the 'field'.

Nightwing took out another minion with his Eskrima Sticks before turning around to see Miss Martian and Superboy take out the others.

Team A was currently in an abandoned office building and had just finished off the last of the minions inside. Nightwing had detected a nearby unactivated bomb (that Team C hadn't located yet) and went straight for it, wanting to destroy it before it could go off. They've already destroyed one other unactivated bomb, this one making their second.

Nightwing looked at the Team and smiled before saying over the mind link, ' _Nightwing to everyone; Team A is done in section 5. Report status.'_

_'Team C has finished clearing sections 2, 3, 6, and 9,'_  Aqualad replied.

_'This is Team B. We've finished clearing everyone out of the streets and currently helping Team C,'_  Robin added.

There was a moment of silence before Artemis replied with, ' _Phantom and I are doing pretty well. Whoa! But Team A should probably head over to section 7 because we're starting to get outnumbered!'_

_'And not to mention out-GUNNED,'_ Phantom added.

Nightwing looked at Miss Martian and Superboy who both nodded in return. ' _Team A is on the way; B and C meet us there!'_

Team A then dashed towards what they know as 'Section 7', which is a park clearing near some more office buildings and also WAY too close to downtown Gotham.

"Do you think that Joker and his men may have all grouped together to protect the last bomb?" Superboy asked as they ran.

"Maybe, or maybe they're trying to create a diversion!" Nightwing exclaimed. ' _Nightwing to Team! It may just be a diversion! Miss M, find Batman and tell him our theory. Kid Flash and Impulse, scope out the farthest sections for any signs of Joker, minions, or bombs. Phantom, do you see anything?'_

_'You mean besides the armed minions trying to shoot at me? Nothing.I don't see-'_

All of a sudden Phantom's voice was cut, but then quickly came back online,  _"Sorry, what was I saying? Oh yeah, no, I don't see anything..."_

Nightwing nodded his head, but still kept his eyes peeled for anything suspicious. ' _Alright then. Team A is almost there, we're about two blocks out from your location!'_

Phantom blasted another masked man with an Ecto ray before turning and kicking the legs out from underneath another. He looked up and saw three men teaming up against Artemis. Phantom quickly leaped and side kicked one of them away and blasted another while Artemis knocked out the last. She looked over to him and both nodded at each other before turning to see more coming at them.

Artemis knocked an arrow and as she aimed she said, "Persistent, aren't they?" Then she let the arrow fly and as it hit the ground, in front of the small group, it released knockout gas, causing the group to drop mid-run.

A gunshot was heard and Phantom quickly turned the two of them intangible. He turned and shot a low powered ecto ray at the gunner's head, resulting in knocking the man out.

" ** _Very,"_** Phantom said deadpan.

Just then as Phantom heard a 'Click' of a gun, the minion behind them was knocked out by Aqualad.

" _ **Aqualad**_ ," Phantom nodded.

Aqualad nodded in return as he said, "Phantom. Artemis. I heard you may be in the need of assistance."

Phantom smirked at the other's answer before turning back and shooting an ecto ray at an 'attempting to hide' minion.

Just then, the rest of Team B, Team C, and A appeared.

"Aww! You're having a party without us! That's so not crash!" Impulse whined.

Artemis just rolled her eyes at the young speedster, while Beast Boy and Robin smiled.

"Hey! I've got an awesome idea!" Beastboy exclaimed, "Why don't we have a competition?! You know like split into just TWO teams and then see who can beat up the most, bad guys!"

Everyone looked at each other curiously and then turned back to the green shapeshifter with smiles on their faces.

"Yeah, that actually sounds kind of fun," Kid Flash replied.

Nightwing then split everyone into two teams. Team A was as follows: Phantom, Superboy, Artemis, Kid Flash, and Zatanna. Team B consisted of Miss Martian, Beast Boy, Impulse, Robin, and Nightwing. As soon as the teams were decided, more of Joker's men appeared.

Kid Flash smirked as he put on his goggles again. "Just in time."

Thus, the competition began.

"Ten! Eleven! Twelve!" Nightwing grinned as he hit three more minions.

Impulse ran by and zig-zagged through more minions, knocking each of them out. "Twenty!" he exclaimed.

"Hey save some for us!" Beast Boy said as he transformed into a Rhino and charged.

"Mrasid!" Zatanna yelled. A small group of minions was then disarmed and Conner knocked them out.

"Eighteen!" Superboy claimed.

Phantom was back to back with Aqualad (who decided to join in on Team A) and both were using hand-to-hand combat and powers against their foes. " **Twenty-five**!" Aqualad and Phantom exclaimed in sync.

The competition continued for a good long 10 minutes before Superboy took out the last minion. Everyone looked at each other, tired, but were smiling and laughing at their childish antics.

"Well... I guess that's the end of that," Beast Boy said breaking the silence.

Nightwing walked over and got everyone's attention, "Batman and some other Leaguers have successfully captured the Joker. We're clear to return to base."

Everyone nodded and slowly began to walk back to where the bioship was, all in good spirits. At least until...

Phantom's ghost sense went off and he froze. The feeling of shock, fear, and disbelief suddenly drowning out everything.

"Phantom?" Robin asked as he noticed that Phantom was not following them.

Everyone turned to see Phantom slowly turn around, now facing the way they had just come from.

Phantom stared with his neon glowing eyes, slowly dimming in which everyone present could clearly see the fear within them.

Ten, maybe fifteen, feet away was a person, no, a  _teen_. He wore a jumpsuit that looked almost EXACTLY like Phantom's, but with more angled gloves and boots. What was also strange was that his skin was  _blue,_  he had a small white goatee as well as white hair that closely resembled white fire and last but not least, the teen had  _glowing_   _RED_  eyes.

The Team stared in awe while Phantom stared in absolute horror.

Glowing green met glowing red.

The blue-skinned teen revealed a fanged smirk at Phantom, who in turn paled. The blue teen seemed to flicker, as though it were simply an illusion.

" _Daannnnyyyy..."_  the teen said hauntingly as well as tauntingly.

Said person felt cold crawling its way up his spine; resulting in the other to smile more cruelly.

The wind began to blow more coolly as well as slowly, giving the air around them an unnatural and  _evil_  feel.

" _We're waiting for you...time to come home now."_

The teen then began to flicker more and he slowly began to fade out of existence.

" _Your time is up Danny... you're only delaying the_ _ **inevitable**_ _."_

Then, just like that, the teen was gone and all that remained was an empty field from where he once stood. The wind stilled and the surrounding forest made no noise. No birds chirping, no crickets, just the seemingly long deadly silence. (Besides the younger members began to whisper to each other, asking who that person might have been.)

It seemed like hours had passed before Phantom moved, but the movement that was performed was not expected.

Phantom had fallen to his knees and was staring blankly at his hands that were limply placed on his lap. He was shaking, though barely visible, as well extremely pale.

Miss M began to walk closer to him but stopped when the grass around him iced over.

She didn't move backward, but she didn't proceed any further either. _'Superboy,'_  she said over the mind link.

Superboy, without a single word, walked over to the Ghost Boy and slowly kneeled next to him.

"Phantom? Come on, it's time to go." He didn't receive a single response.

Superboy's breath caught in his throat as he noticed tears start to stream down the other's face.

All the other Team members watched in both sympathy and confusion as Superboy gently hugged Phantom, the later beginning to silently sob into the other's shoulder. All the while, the teen's haunting voice kept ringing in their ears,

" _You're only delaying the_ inevitable _..._


	7. Chapter 6

The quiet vibrating hum of the engine was all that was heard on the bioship, as Mount Justice came into view.

Blue, purple, and pink streaked the sky as the sun barely peeked over the horizon, making the navy blue and gray clouds give off an eery feel aboard with the passengers.

Superboy turned to see Phantom (cloak on and hood up) staring outside the window, watching the setting sun. One leg was propped up to his chest, arms wrapped loosely around it, while the other leg hung off the edge of the seat. But what bothered Superboy the most, was the emptiness within the other's eyes, they looked dull and... dead.

' _He's been like that for a while now...'_

Superboy was startled by the sudden Mind Link and turned to see Miss Martian, who in turn was looking at Phantom with a sympathetic and worried look that was plastered on her face.

' _Yeah_...' Superboy replied. 

' _What do you think he's thinking about_?' Beast Boy asked.

' _Gee I don't know, maybe his past_?' Artemis sarcastically replied.

' _Speaking of the past, we're right back to when this started. Who do you think that guy was_?' Kid Flash asked.

' _You mean blue, creepy, and scary? No idea_ ,' Impulse replied in a fearful tone.

' _Well considering the fact that Phantom seemed to know him, and by the way, he reacted, I would have to guess that he was probably someone important or someone very close to him,_ ' Robin theorized.

' _No_.'

Everyone turned to Superboy with confused and curious looks.

' _That person (if my guess is right) was definitely NOT close to Phantom.'_

' _Why would you say that_?' Aqualad asked.

' _Because if I'm right, then we're ALL in BIG trouble.'_

' _Okay? But why? Who do you think that guy was back there_?' Beast Boy asked.

_'I think he may have been_ -'

**_"I know you guys are talking about me so you can stop using the Mind Link already."_ **

Superboy jumped as he turned around to find Phantom facing all of them, his neon green eyes focused, but empty at the same time.

Superboy opened his mouth to say something but was interrupted by Miss Martian announcing their arrival to Base.

The peaceful humming of the ship's engine quieted as the landing gear retracted from the bottom of the ship (while outside, the Hangar Bay doors crept open as the bioship approached further towards it). With a soft jerk, the Bioship landed within the Hangar Bay, thus allowing the doors to close shut.

The passengers slowly made their way off the ship and started walking towards the Debriefing Room.

Only now did Superboy remember that Nightwing and Zatanna were gone. He was about to question their absence when he then remembered that both Team members had gone ahead to make sure everything was clear at the 'Cave'.

As the Team walked into the Debriefing Room, they stopped short in their tracks and stared in awe at the sight before them.

Standing next to Nightwing was a strange being holding a staff. He wore a dark purple cloak held up by a black gear, a light purple shirt (the middle of his chest being what looked like a pendulum inside a glass window), gray gloves with many watches on each, and where the shirt ended, a blue wispy tail was present. The being's skin was blue, his eyes pupilless red with a scar over his left eye.

While the Team stood in silence and stared, the being switched forms from an adult to that of a child, then the child turned into an old man with a long white beard. The changing forming no kind of pattern and at random time intervals.

Nightwing seemed to notice the hesitance of the team and cleared his throat. "Team, welcome back."

Aqualad nodded his head then turned to the being with a respectful tone of voice, "I mean no disrespect but, who are you?"

The being smirked and simply turned his attention somewhere next to the protege, " **Maybe he may be of assistance..."**

" ** _His name is Clockwork... and he is the ghost Master of Time."_**

The Team turned with surprised expressions, to look at a completely monotone Phantom who didn't even bat an eye when all attention was on him. " ** _Also he's a big pain in the butt sometimes..."_**

Clockwork raised an eyebrow, but still kept up his monotone voice saying, " **Let us not forget that I am also technically your guardian**."

The Team gasped and everyone looked at Phantom with shocked and confused expressions.

Phantom stepped forward and replied with, " ** _Yeah well, let's just say I'm not in the mood for formalities_**."

Clockwork sighed and his neutral face turned into one of sadness, " **It has been some time since I've last seen you, Daniel..."**

Phantom's face softened and he sighed back, " ** _It's good to see you too Clockwork..."_**

"HELLO!?"

Everyone turned their attention towards Kid Flash who had completely lost his patience.

"Mind filling us in? Like how about, who are you? Where did you come from? And WHY are you here?!"

Clockwork smirked while Phantom frowned and sighed in irritation, " ** _Here we go_**..." he mumbled mostly to himself.

" **As young Daniel explained before, Wally West a.k.a. Kid Flash, I am Clockwork, Master of Time. I know all and see all. I know that you are sometimes reckless, stubborn minded, especially when it comes to the reality and logic of things. I also know that you were the last one to take the granola bars from the pantry."**

Wally looked absolutely devastated and flabbergasted that he had been put into the spotlight and had been caught red-handed by a stranger.

Clockwork continued to smirk as he continued his answer, " **As for where I had come from, I came from the Ghost Zone. I already know that Daniel has given you some information about it, but has not described things in detail. But that is for another time in a different place..."**

Gar took a step forward and asked, "If you're the Master of Time, can you alter the past and stuff like that?"

Clockwork didn't even hesitate to answer, " **To an extent. I and the Observer's watch over the timeline and make sure that nothing disrupts it. To answer your question young Martian, the Observers are exactly what they are called, Observers. But the difference between the Observers and I is this. The Observants look at time like they're watching a parade, one thing after another passing by in sequence right in front of them. I see the parade from above, all the twists and turns it might -or might not- take. As for altering time or an event, it's... complicated."**

The Team all gaped in awe as they continued to stare at their new guest.

Clockwork's smirk faded and his neutral face replaced it as he said, " **I already know what question you're going to ask, go ahead and ask."**

Phantom's face went neutral, but his eyes were filled with dread. He said in a low voice, " ** _How did he escape?"_**

Clockwork sighed and began his explanation, " **Daniel, I-"**

Phantom's eyes brightened and he said/demanded loudly, " ** _How did he ESCAPE?"_**

Clockwork frowned at Phantom's behavior, but sighed in defeat, " **Someone freed him**."

Phantom narrowed his eyes, " ** _How_**?"

" **They had a specialized thief steal one of the Time Medallions and unable to stop time around them, they stole the thermos and fled."**

Phantom's eyes dimmed to their normal state and lowered his head slightly, avoiding any eye contact.

" **Danny**?"

Phantom looked up in surprise at the sound of his nickname (that Clockwork had always refused to call him).

Clockwork walked up to him and put his hand on the other's shoulder.

" **Your homeworld is in danger and Amity Park is falling apart**."

That really caught Phantom's attention, " ** _What? What's going on?"_**

" **All will be revealed in time, but... I have the misfortune of having to tell you that you must return to your previous dimension and world."**

That's when things went downhill (or more downhill than it already was).

Phantom's entire mood seemed to shift to sadness and dread.

" **I know Daniel... But please believe me when I say that I would NEVER send you back there if the situation wasn't dire. Ghosts and Humans alike are in danger... On the other hand, this is only temporary, for it is more of a mission than a move."**

Phantom remained silent as he listened on, dread and sadness filling his every emotion and thought. But upon hearing that last line, his hopes seemed to rise a little.

Clockwork frowned, even looked saddened when he did something unexpected. He pulled Phantom closer and gave him a comforting hug, causing the hood on Phantom's head to fall and reveal his pure white hair. Clockwork sighed as Phantom didn't make a move to hug him back and just continued to let the older ghost hug him.

Clockwork broke the hug after a few moments and turned to a sad and deflated Team. He nodded his head as if checking to make sure everything was good, before turning back to a still silent Phantom.

" **I will give you time to prepare for the mission. Tomorrow morning, 9 a.m., a portal will open here in this room. The portal will transport you straight to Amity Park** ," Clockwork explained in a monotone voice.

Clockwork turned around and started to walk away, but stopped when he heard his name. " **Yes, Daniel**?"

Everyone's attention, again, back on Phantom as he asked in a low voice, " ** _Will they be there?"_**

Clockwork only remained solemn and answered back with, " **Everything is as it should be..."**

A minute hand appeared in mid-air and rotated around Clockwork, surrounding him in an opaque blue and navy portal. The portal finally winked out when the minute hand reached where it had started, signaling that the meeting with their strange visitor, was adjourned.

There was a long and awkward silence as the Team stared at the space in front them, but only Nightwing seemed to notice the tense atmosphere. "Well, that was... interesting."

Everyone seemed to snap out of their daze and some voiced their agreements. Only for them to realize that Danny was still silent and still, it was unnerving, to say the least.

"So-?"

Danny turned to Gar and asked in a quiet voice, " ** _So what_**?"

Gar rolled his eyes before asking, "What's the plan?"

" ** _There is no plan_** ," he answered as he started walking away towards the living quarters.

"What do you mean there's no plan?!" Bart exclaimed.

Danny stopped and turned back to the Team, " ** _I mean there's no plan that involves you."_**

The reaction was immediate, everyone began protesting, arguing and talking over each other. The chaos continued for a couple minutes before everyone went silent and M'gann stepped up to him, "Danny, you are not going to do this alone. We're your friends and family-"

Conner walked up to Danny and looked at him straight in the eye, "So we're not going to let anyone do anything we're either in this together-"

Nightwing stepped up last, "or not at all."

The Team members all looked at each other before smiling and turning back to Danny.

Said person looked at his year-old family. He looked at the determination in their eyes, the confident smiles, and the brave postures of everyone. And he couldn't help but smile.

" ** _If you get boxes thrown at you by Boxy, don't come running to me saying I didn't tell you so..."_**

Everyone's smiles brightened. The younger members fist bumped, the older members looked relieved and happy that the young ghost agreed to let them go.

Conner placed his hand on Danny's shoulder and said quietly to him, "Thanks."

Danny just looked up at him and then back at the ground sighing. " ** _This is going to come back to bite me in the butt, I just know it."_**

Conner smirked and replied back, "Even if that does happen, you won't have to face it alone."

Danny closed his eyes and smiled, before opening them again and announcing to everyone, " ** _Hey! If you want to go, you better go get some of your stuff packed! Because this is a one-way trip and there won't be any coming back to get stuff!"_**

Immediately, the younger team members ran off to go pack their things and rush off to bed, while the older ones simply walked off to the same. Thus leaving Conner, Danny, and Nightwing.

Nightwing turned to the other two, "I'll go tell Batman what's going on and what the plan is. I'll see two in the morning."

Conner and Danny said their goodbyes to him and Nightwing walked off to the Zeta-Tubes.

.......

Conner opened his eyes to see nothing but black. His eyes adjusted to the lighting and saw his mostly blank and bland room. He looked over to see his small alarm clock read 11:26. He blinked in confusion and thought of why he might have woken up when he picked up with his super hearing a faint noise in the living room.

He quietly got up and made his way down the hallway. Conner peeked around the corner of the wall to see into the living room, only to sigh and walk out of his hiding spot.

Laying on the couch was a half-asleep Danny tinkering with another gadget/machine. He was laying on his back, raven hair a ruffled mess, dark circles under his eyes, and his hands fidgeting with his gadget.

"Danny?" Conner asked.

"Hmm?"

"You need to go to bed..." he sighed.

"'m not tired," was Danny's response.

Conner rolled his eyes and sat on the edge of the couch, "Yes you are. Look at you, you can barely speak and you're an absolute mess."

Danny put the gadget on his stomach and rubbed his eyes, yawning, "Not just yet... wanna finish this first."

Conner sighed in exasperation and picked up the gadget and put it on the living room table, before turning back to Danny and picking him up and carrying him over his shoulder.

The boy was shocked awake and immediately began to protest back, "Conner put me down! I'm not tired okay?!" he whisper-yelled.

Conner just kept on walking while he answered back, "No. You need to get some sleep. Especially since tomorrow, we're traveling dimensions and going to your old home. Not mentioning the fact that as soon as a ghost sees you, you're going to have more than a couple fights on your hands..."

Everything was silent as Danny thought about his reasoning and finally sighed in defeat, "Fine... I guess I'll get some rest..."

Conner nodded his head in agreement and set Danny down, letting him walk back to his room on his own, and returning to his as well.

.......

In the morning, everyone got up relatively around the same time. They all got dressed in their hero outfits, ate breakfast (that both M'gann and Danny cooked), and met up in the debriefing room together.

The team members that were going were Nightwing, Superboy, Miss Martian, Kid Flash, Artemis, Aqualad, Beast Boy, Impulse, Robin, and Zatanna. Everyone else would stay and watch over the cave and complete any missions if they were assigned one.

All the teens had their bags with them (every single on them being either a backpack or a duffle bag), and were waiting for everyone else to get settled.

Once everyone was there, Danny walked up and turned to all of them. "In exactly five minutes and 17 seconds, a portal will open in front of us. Once everyone crosses through the portal it will close and there will be no turning back.

When we are in my world you need to listen very carefully. Those people have never met a single superhero in their life, so you must watch what you do and when you do it. Chances are they'll get curious and walk up to you. If put in that situation you have the choice whether or not to answer their questions. I'm not your mother, therefore, I won't treat you like I'm one.

As for other situations, just listen when I ask you too and everything should run smoothly. When we get there, we need to locate the old warehouse I made into a base, from there, we can assess the situation and go from there. Everyone got that?"

The Team nodded their heads in confirmation.

"Then let's do this."

As soon as Danny said those words, a green and black portal appeared out of thin air behind him. He took a deep breath, turned around, and walked into the portal.


	8. Chapter 7

 

After what seemed like hours, the swirling green and black faded into blinding white.

As Danny's eyes adjusted to the new lighting, he tensed as the smell of burnt wood, smoke, and dea-

Danny quickly shut his eyes and shook his head to get rid of the dark memories. ' _That was a long time ago, Phantom... clear your thoughts and don't think about what happened then.'_

He took in a breath and let it out slowly, this time taking in the present information from his senses. It smelled of old books and clay and the air offered little to no breeze in the old abandoned part of the city. The chilly atmosphere of fall surrounded  
him as he saw the multicolored leaves scattered across the road. Danny took another deep breath, ' _Welcome home, Fenton..."_

"Woah! It's kinda chilly out here!" came Bart's voice.

Danny turned to see the rest of the Team walking out of the portal, the person being Zatanna, in which the portal disappeared with a minute hand swirling around it and it too disappeared.

"Whoah..." Gar whispered in awe.

"This is-"

"What is this place?" Artemis asked no one in particular.

      In front of them stood what could only be described as a devastated city, or at least a part of it. Some buildings and houses were completely down while others had missing pieces of their walls. Windows were shattered or cracked, papers and leaves littered the roads and sidewalks, cars were burnt, abandoned, crashed, or turned over, and pipes stuck up and out of the ground and buildings. The road in which they stood on was mostly clear, except for the piles of rubble that lay on the sides of the road from where buildings and houses had fallen.

Danny let out a long breath before turning around completely, in order to face everyone. " _ **This happened a while ago, my guess? About a year and a half after I got my powers."**_

"I didn't think it was this bad," Conner commented as he observed the new surroundings.

Danny only stared at him with a passive look as he replied back with, " _ **I told you it was pretty bad..."**_

Dick nodded his head as if he were taking notes. "Alright, what next?"

' _Time to get down to business, Phantom,'_ Danny thought to himself.

" _ **If my guess is correct, then the base shouldn't be too far from here. Probably four to five blocks from here. Once we're there we can set up camp and can use it as long as we need too. Inside, there's guest rooms, food, a lab, and it's all powered by ectoplasmic energy. In other words, we don't have to worry about the electricity bill.-"**_

Some of the members cracked a smile at his attempt to lighten up the mood.

_**"But I do have to warn you that if a ghost shows up, you need to stay out of the fight. Until we reach the warehouse and get you the right tech, you won't be able to fight the ghosts here very effectively. Yes, you may have sparred and fought against** _ **me** _**before, but you need to remember what I told you a while ago. These ghosts are a little bit different than I am.."** _

Everyone frowned at the thought of not being able to help in a fight, but they all eventually agreed to Phantom's warning.

" _ **Oh, and one more thing-,"**_ Phantom said as he pulled the hood up on his cloak, the rest of the Team following his lead and also going into stealth modes, " _ **Whatever you hear from the ghosts? Don't listen to them. As I've also explained before, I have a lot of enemies here as well as allies, and some of them fight you both physically and emotionally. So no matter what they say or do, stay hidden until I've given the all clear."**_

The Team reluctantly nodded their heads and set off, following Phantom through the old and abandoned part of the city.

After walking in silence for about ten minutes, Kid Flash spoke up. "So... Phantom?"

Said person tilted his head slightly to show that he was listening.

"Where's your old house?"

A small silence had taken place, when the other finally answered, " _ **It's on the other side of the city. Past downtown and somewhat near the outskirts. I'll show you if we get the chance to pass by it later on."**_

"Noted," Beast Boy said.

Another long silence took hold and left the Team with the eery and empty feel of the devastated area.

"Where is everyone?" Artemis asked.

" _ **This place has been abandoned for two and half years. They either moved out of town or moved out of state.**_ "

"Were there any injuries or fatalities?" Zatanna asked.

Phantom lowered his head slightly, " _ **No, but so many people had almost gotten killed because of the incident. Most were injured but just a few scratches and bruises, only a few were seriously hurt."**_

Kid Flash put his hands behind his head with a bored look on his face, "So where are these 'ghosts' anyway?"

Not even two seconds after he had said that Phantom's breath fogged up in front of him and a loud explosion sounded off near them.

Everyone turned and glared at Kid Flash, who in turn raised his hands in surrender and said sheepishly, "Um... Sorry?"

Phantom sighed in irritation as he said loud enough for everyone to hear, " _ **Guess it's time for my announcement of arrival. Scatter."**_

With that Phantom floated into the air and turned invisible, while the Team scattered in the shadows and made their way over to the explosion site. When the being came into view, the Team was shocked. "Okay, I'm officially whelmed," Nightwing commented.

Floating above a newly created mess, was a glowing giant robot with silver armor and weaponry, it's face and mouth moved as though it were organic, and it had a green flaming Mohawk on top of its head.

"What- is that?!" Artemis whisper exclaimed.

But before anyone could answer, the robot aimed in front of it, missiles emerging from its wrist, and fired at an already close to demolished car.

" _ **This place is already a mess buddy, I'm pretty sure it doesn't need any more damages."**_

The being looked up in surprise as Phantom dropped his invisibility.

" **Whelp?!"**

Phantom smirked and said, " _ **The one and only."**_

The 'ghost' remained surprised for a minute more before aiming his weapons at the teen. " **Finally, I can finish what I started and hang your pelt on my wall!"**

Phantom just remained floating in front of Skulker and said back, " _ **You know no matter how many times you say it... That's still disgusting."**_

      The ghost then fired his weapons, but all Phantom did was throw up a shield and as soon as the missiles exploded against it, he dropped the shield and shot an ice beam at him. The ghost fell slightly but quickly recovered and flew towards the teen. Phantom sighed in annoyance, " _ **I don't have time for this."**_  He then made a giant ecto-ball infused with ice in his hands and threw it at the other ghost. It hit him dead on and he fell onto the road, shattering the ice that had built up around him and left him dazed on the ground. Phantom quickly dropped down and landed on the ghost's neck, causing the latter's head to snap off.

Meanwhile, in the shadows, some of the members stared in shock or gagged at Phantom's violent display, before calming and sighing in relief as they saw him reach down and pick up the robot's head and then pulling out a small green being with red eyes by its leg.

The small green ghosts screamed and spat insults at Phantom as the latter smiled and said smugly, _ **"Hello, Skulky."**_

" **It's Skulker, Ghost Child! And the Greatest Hunter in the Ghost Zone doesn't deserve to be manhandled! So put me DOWN!"** Skulker exclaimed in a squeaky voice.

" _ **Well then maybe you should've waited to attack me and listened to what I was going say."**_

The other ghost simply crossed its arms and said defiantly, " **Like I would ever miss out on a great opportunity to hunt!** "

Phantom lost his smile and his face turned serious, " _ **Here's what you're going to do Skulker. You're going to tell me what the fuss is all about here in Amity."**_

Skulker  _shivered_  at the glare the teen was giving him when he finally sighed in defeat, " **Fine. But first turn me right side up, all the ectoplasm is flowing to my brain."**

Phantom did what was asked and waited for Skulker to explain, " **Rumor around is that someone is putting together an army. Not a full-scale ghost army, but technologically advanced weapons and robots of all sorts. Some say that quite a few ghosts had joined and that they're all getting ready."**

Phantom narrowed his eyes as he put two in two together, " _ **They're getting ready for another attempted Ghost Invasion.**_ "

Skulker nodded with a dark look on his face, " **T** **hat's only rumor. But as of now... rumor is looking pretty real to me."**

Phantom nodded and looked at Skulker before opening his hand to let Skulker stand up on his palm.

" **Babypop?! Is that really you?!"**

The said person turned to see another ghost floating towards them.

      The being was feminine with forest green eyes. She had long, flaming, teal hair put into a ponytail at the top of her head held back, she had two locks of hair framing her face which looked like a sharp-angled "M" and purple lipstick. She wore a black choker around her neck, a black one-shouldered tank-top exposing her midriff, one long glove that covers most of her right arm, and one black bracelet on her left arm. She also wore a pair of what appeared to be leather pants with a silver belt and skull boots.

Phantom smiled and said back, " _ **Sure is Ember, though you would you mind please watching your boyfriend? This city has had enough destruction as it is."**_

'Ember' sighed and opened her hand to let Skulker fly over and sit on her palm. " **Sure thing. So what brings you back to Amity Park? Thought you finally ditched this hell hole."**

Phantom gave her a sad smile before becoming serious again. " _ **Clockwork sent me. Turns out the situation is slightly worse than I had originally thought."**_

Ember huffed in annoyance as she replied, " **Yeah you can definitely say that. Well, it was nice seeing you again, Danny. Let me know if those old parents of yours get to you too bad, alright Dipstick?"**

As she began floating away, Skulker screamed back, " **And don't think this is over Whelp! I'll be back to finish the hunt in no time!"**

Phantom gave a mock salute and the two other ghosts flew out of sight.

" _ **You guys can come out now,"**_  he announced, landing softly on the ground.

The Team walked out of the shadows and looked slightly shaken up as well as intrigued at the turn of events.

"HOW DID YOU DO THAT?!" Beast Boy exclaimed with his mouth agape.

Phantom only raised an eyebrow at the young hero, before answering, " _ **I've fought Skulker and Ember multiple times before. Actually, I think Skulker used to attack me at least two to three times a week before I left."**_

He then turned around and started to walk towards the direction of the base.

Beast Boy only smiled in delight/excitement while Aqualad finally decided to speak up. "When you used to live here, were you considered the 'Ghost Expert'?"

The Halfa turned his head to the Atlantian and thought about his question for a couple seconds. " _ **As in having more knowledge about ghosts? Or fighting them?"**_

"Both," Aqualad asked, genuinely curious as to what his answer will be.

Phantom thought for a moment, then shrugged, " _ **Yes and no. For both I mean. Yes, I do know a lot about ghosts, but at the same time, I wouldn't call myself an expert. Same thing with fighting them. Some can be more malevolent while others can be more negotiable. And more than half the ghosts in the Ghost Zone just want to be left alone."**_

"That's... actually very interesting," Zatanna commented.

Aqualad nodded his head in agreement. Then Robin, who was next to Beast Boy and Impulse, asked, "So is there any kind of form of Government in the Ghost Zone?"

" _ **I thought we discussed this a while ago..."**_ he answered hesitantly.

Robin smirked as he said, "We did, I just wanted to know if you remembered or not. Which brings to the question, do they still remember?"

Phantom sighed in irritation, " ** _Of course they do, but they don't talk about it because other ghosts already have the job of nagging me_ _. And trust me, I've been in enough arguments about that as it is."_**

Some of the heroes looked at each other in confusion but then just pushed the questions to the back of their minds, and continued to follow Phantom in silence.

After about half an hour, a medium and worn down warehouse came into view. The second-floor windows were broken and cracked, vines grew on one side of the building, the bricks looked rusted towards the bottom, and dust lay on every nook and cranny.

Kid Flash crossed his arms and said sarcastically, "Nice place..."

" _ **I know it isn't much but-"**_

"It'll have to do." Nightwing interrupted, "Phantom?"

Said person nodded and walked towards the old and yellowed double doors. After a moment's hesitation, he opened the doors and walked inside the (mostly) empty warehouse. The others followed him inside and quietly closed the doors.

The area was mostly bare not counting the few tables and desks placed in the center of the building. Pipes hung or lay untouched, glass and wood planks were leaning against the walls, and dust and dirt somewhat littered the concrete floors.

"How long do you suppose someone's been here?" Artemis asked.

But before Phantom could even utter a word, alarms blared and red lights blinked along the walls.

The Team (this includes Phantom) took defensive positions as they heard multiple loud and running footsteps.

But as the new occupants came into the room, both they and Phantom froze completely.

      Standing in front of the Team, about ten feet away, were two females and two males. One female, a woman, was tall with violet eyes and had red/orange hair that was cut to her neck, and she wore a teal jumpsuit. The other female was a teenager with short-medium hair, purple eyes, and she wore a black and purple tank top with a skirt, purple leggings, and black combat boots. Meanwhile one male, adult, was tall and bulky, he had blue eyes, black and gray hair, and he too wore a jumpsuit, but it was orange instead. And lastly, the other male was a teenager. He had a red beret, black glasses, a yellow long sleeve shirt, cargo pants, and brown boots.

They remained frozen in place as they stared at the white-cloaked Phantom.

"DANNY?!"


	9. Chapter 8

  
The air within the warehouse felt thick and eery in the echoing silence. The fading sun only dampened the mood further, as shadows danced across the walls and stretched their eager skeletal fingers towards the occupants of the room. Yellow turned orange as the sun's last rays of light shone through the broken windows of the warehouse.

Danny, still in his Ghost form, observed his ex-family and friends, and couldn't help but feel guilty as he took in their appearances.

Maddie and Jack Fenton's hair were graying significantly, their usually out-going colored jumpsuits looked worn and dull in color, their weapons also looked worn and poorly made in design, but lastly their eyes. Their eyes held so much grief and exhaustion that it almost hurt to look at them.

Miss Martian must've noticed the way Phantom was looking at his birth parents, for she was now talking to him through the mind-link. ' _Danny... it's not your fault. They brought this upon themselves. It's their own actions that made them like this_ ,' she said, attempting to assure him. But Danny didn't dare voice his doubtful thoughts on the matter.

Before Phantom, or anybody, could say anything, Maddie exclaimed 'Danny' and began to run towards him with open arms and a relieved smile on her face with tears in her eyes.

But before she could reach him, Superboy stepped in front of the ghost, effectively blocking off the red-haired woman's path.

Maddie stopped and with a look of shock, stared at the slightly older raven-haired teen. Soon enough she was able to snap out of it and now looked on in curiosity.

"What do you think you're doing?" Superboy's voice echoed throughout the warehouse.

Maddie blinked in surprise at the question, but that surprise quickly turned into irritation, "Hugging my son, what else would I be doing?"

' _She's telling the truth you know...'_ Kid Flash said over the Mind-Link.

' _That doesn't mean she gets the right too_ ,' Superboy said cooly back.

_'So how are we going to deal with these guys_?' Artemis asked.

"Last time I checked, he wasn't your son..." Miss Martain retorted, stepping closer to Phantom.

"You teenagers dare have the audacity to sit there and claim-"

" ** _Enough_**!"

Both groups stopped and turned to stare at the person of topic, only to find that said person trying their best to refrain themselves from lashing out.

Phantom took a calming breath and stated seriously, " ** _This discussion can wait till later... We are currently on a mission and we must complete it. Now, can you please explain what's been happening in Amity Park_**?"

Both groups now blinked at Phantom in shock, surprised that he decided to speak up after all. Nightwing, on the other hand, couldn't help but smirk, for he was proud of the young teen for speaking for himself and keeping the mission their main priority.

Maddie, now even more interested, crossed her arms and asked, "What 'mission'?"

Phantom answered back (rather sarcastically), " ** _Clockwork came to me saying that Amity Park is falling apart. Imagine my surprise when I got here and I discover that there is a planned Ghost Invasion waiting to happen, and how the city doesn't seem to be equipped enough to fight it off."_**

Sam Manson finally came out of her shock and decided to say something, "First you go and abandon us, leaving us to have to deal with all the ghosts constantly causing havoc. Then you decide to go to an entirely different dimension, leaving us to also have to deal with the problems in the Ghost Zone! And you come back NOW only to insult us?! What is wrong with you?!"

Phantom's eyes darkened significantly and with gritted teeth replied, " ** _Last time I checked, the ghosts were always Amity Park's problem, NEVER mine. And for your information, there IS nothing wrong with me..."_**

Then Phantom's ex-father decided to join the conversation, "Now son, there's no reason to be hostile-"

Phantom's glowing aura flared and his green eyes grew brighter turning almost blinding white, " ** _I have EVERY right to be HOSTILE_**!" A light fixture above them exploded, causing sparks to fly all around the two groups. ' _Phantom your powers are getting out of control, you need to calm down_ ,' Aqualad ordered calmly over the Mind-Link.

Phantom took a deep breath in order to gather himself again, before giving a long sigh while pinching the bridge of his nose, " ** _Look... can we just discuss the real problem here?"_**

Mr. Fenton opened his mouth to speak but was interrupted by a certain Tucker Foley, who noticed things were going to get ugly if he didn't do something soon. "Yeah we'll explain and we'll also tell you what we found out so far. But first, let's head downstairs in order to get a bit more comfortable..."

Tucker turned around and began to walk towards the desk that was in the middle of the room. He walked over to the other side of it and pushed a button that was underneath it. The Team (except for Phantom) stared in slight awe as a trap door opened beside the desk and a metal staircase appeared heading downwards.

"So..." Beast Boy said breaking the silence, "Who exactly are you guys?"

Kid Flash actually facepalmed while the rest of the Team just gave him looks that said 'you couldn't have thought of anything else to say?'

Tucker sighed and decided to introduce himself first, "Name's Tucker. Tucker Foley. TF for-"

"Tucker, I swear to the Ancients if you finish that sentence..." Sam interrupted with a dangerous tone of voice.

Beast Boy, Impulse, and Robin couldn't help but snicker at how pale Tucker had gotten after she said that. The rest of the Team either ignored it or just tried to look amused.

"Anyways, I'm a techno-geek. The goth girl over there is Sam Manson," Tucker finished.

"And we're Jack and Maddie Fenton, owner's of FentonWorks and ghost experts and hunters," Jack stated with an enthusiastic smile.

"I honestly would love to say it's nice to meet you, and not to sound rude or anything, but from Phantom's told us so far we- um..." Kid Flash tried to explain.

Jack's eyes and his smile turned sad as he replied back, "It's alright... I honestly would do the same thing if I were in your shoes."

It was then that they finally reached the bottom of the stairs and walked through two metal swinging doors. As they walked into the room, the Team couldn't help but stare in awe. The walls were covered with all kinds of technology, there were multiple desks set up all around the large underground room, and there was enough light to make it look as though it were daytime.

"Welcome to our trusty base! Complete with guests rooms for late-night investigations and hunts, a training room, a kitchen, cable, gaming consoles, and a weapon's vault! All made by yours truly!" Tucker grinned like a madman as he welcomed the Team.

Most of the members nodded in awe or confirmation of hearing the fellow teen, while the others were still looking around the room. But their observations were interrupted by the Fentons. "I also don't mean to sound rude, but who are you? And why are you on a mission with Danny?" Maddie Fenton glared.

Nightwing stepped up in front of the group and held out his hand towards the red-headed Fenton. "My name is Nightwing. I am the leader of this team of young heroes and am in charge of giving missions. I permitted this mission since it was a request from an old friend of Phantoms' and we felt as though it would be best to come along to make sure he was not in harm's way. As to where we came from, we're actually from a different dimension."

Both the Fentons and Phantom's ex-friends' eyes widened at that last statement.

Tucker stepped forwards waving his hands back and forth saying, "Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa! Wait! Hold up! Did you just say different  _dimension_?!"

Nightwing and a few others couldn't help but smirk at that. And thus the introductions began. "Yep, we sure do! My name's Beast Boy!" "My name is Robin." "Kid Flash." "Artemis." "Aqualad." "Miss Martain." "Superboy." "Impulse!" "And I'm Zatanna."

"Well, it's nice to meet all of you wonderful people!" Jack said with a cheerful smile.

Nightwing was about to get everyone back on track, but Sam ended up speaking first. "You can't be serious!"

Everyone's attention turned to Sam as she began to ball her fists at her side. "That's what you meant? You said we'd never be able to find you and that's where you've been all along?  _IN ANOTHER FREAKING DIMENSION?!"_

Danny, on the other hand, just stayed quiet with his white cloak over his head, effectively hiding all of his face beside a few strands of white hair and the bottom half of his face.

"DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA THE KIND OF TROUBLE YOU PUT US THROUGH?!" Sam exclaimed.

"... ** _Sam_** -"

"NO- you're going to listen to this! When you disappeared, we were  _devastated_! We looked for you for months! We even tried to get help from Frostbite, Dora, and even freaking Ember! But no matter how hard we looked, no matter how far we searched,  _you weren't there_..."

Everyone remained quiet as they took in Sam's anger and despair.

" ** _No, you didn't..."_**

"EXCUSE ME?!"

Phantom looked towards the goth girl, his eyes glowing bright green. " ** _I said, no you didn't. I know that you didn't_**!"

Sam couldn't help but back up slightly at Danny's snap, he's never done that before, to  _anyone_.

"You want to know how I know? Because half of the Team and I visited the Ghost Zone a little while back, and I visited Dora, Frostbite, and even went to a private concert that Ember hosted for us! Did you ever think that they might have actually known where I was but decided not to tell you because I asked them too? But no that isn't even the case here... I asked them if you guys were looking for me, and do you know what they told me? You only searched for three days, then completely abandoned the search, you didn't care. So stop feeding me your crap and let's get down to the REAL reason why we're all here. **"**

Everyone blinked at Phantom's response, but it only lasted for a second before Danny swung around and headed towards one of the computers and began typing rapidly.

" ** _Tucker_**." Danny's tone of voice stated loud and clear 'this conversation is over'.

"Oh right! Here, I'll pull up the data we've collected so far," he replied as he began tapping his PDA rapidly.

The Team sent last glances towards the Fenton's before they too walked over to the computer monitors.

"Ok, here's what we got," Tucker announced. With a final click with his PDA, a series of newspaper articles, police reports, and security footage appeared on the large monitor above them. Then a list of people, along with ghosts, showed up on the screen as well.

"As you can see, the bombings have been going off pretty often. But we were able to stop a couple and examine them. They had traces of ectoplasm and we identified the ghost responsible by tracing their ecto-signature. It turned out to be Technus, but that's not all. He may be making the bombs, but someone else, bigger and badder is behind all this. But we still haven't figured out who ye-"

" ** _It's him_** ," Phantom interrupted.

Sam and Tucker's eyes widened in fear and shock at his statement, but their reactions were immediate.

"WHAT?!" "How is that possible?! He was locked up with Clockwork!"

" ** _Well he escaped and now it's my job to put him back in that stupid thermos_** ," Phantom replied darkly.

"This is really bad... Danny?"

" ** _What is it_**?" he growled.

"He's not the only one behind this..."

Phantom turned his head towards the goth girl, " **What**?"

"Danny... It's Pariah Dark, he's been released again," Tucker said solemnly.

The ghostly teen turned his head back towards the screen and was deadly quiet.

"Phantom?" Superboy asked worriedly.

The said person took a shaky breath and announced quietly, " ** _I need some air."_** And with that, he turned intangible/invisible and flew through the ceiling.

Everyone else remained where they were. The team with sad and solemn faces, the Fentons with surprised yet concerned expressions. But not even ten seconds passed before Superboy grunted, turned around, and started heading towards the doors.

"Superboy, don't-" Miss Martian tried to stop the clone, but instead it backfired.

"No. He's going to talk whether he likes it or not. He can't keep hiding his emotions or run away from them, or he'll only end up destroying himself in the end."

And with that, Superboy left without looking back at the others.

"You think they're going to be alright?" Beast Boy asked. Artemis crossed her arms, "Oh please. So long as those two are around each other, they'll be just fine."

Someone cleared their throat, and the Team looked back to Nightwing standing next to Jack Fenton. "Let's call it a day and just try to settle in as much as possible. If I know Superboy, those two will be back in a little while. And if you need anything, you know where to find me."

Everyone nodded their heads in understanding and split off into different groups, each going a different direction. Miss Martain looked towards the doors and thought to herself, ' _I'll join them in a little bit. For now, I'll just leave it to Superboy to try and calm Danny down...'_


	10. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning: Light swearing in this chapter!

      Conner slowly made his way up the creaking metal stairs that lead to the rooftop. He reached for the rusted doorknob but then stopped as he began to hesitate. ' _What if he doesn't want people to talk to him right now? What if he just wants to be left alone so he can be allowed to think?'_  Conner snorted at himself before reaching out and turned the doorknob. ' _Like I'm going to let him do that...'_

      A chilly breeze whisked Conner's short-cut hair as he opened the metal door. Outside it was chilly but comforting. The leaves of Autumn followed the wind as it gently blew through the air, the Sun's orange and yellow rays making the leaves seem to shine and gleam as they passed by. In fact, Conner hadn't even realized how late it was as he saw the sinking sun. The clone sighed as he looked at where the leaves were trying to point him to and found a certain phantom sitting on the edge of the warehouse's roof.

Conner wordlessly sat next to the white-haired boy and began to watch the sunset's rays shine over the majority of the city.

      Its rays shined orange over some of the dull apartment buildings and houses, while red or blue became their shadows. Yellow highlighted some the taller buildings, and in the distance, Conner could make out what looked like a school. But what would've caught his eye, if not for enjoying the sunset, is a house in the distance with what looked to be a UFO or overly-sized satellite on top of its roof.

" _Conner?_ "

Said person was snapped out of his thoughts and he glanced over at the teen next to him.

" _What... What did I do to deserve this? What did I do wrong?_ " Danny mumbled.

Conner looked back to the sinking sun as he replied. "I don't know. But what I  _do_  know is that you're not alone in this. You have a  _real_  family with you, Danny... and that's all that matters."

Danny sighed and let a small smile appear on his face. " _Thanks_."

Conner smiled back, "You're welcome."

The two were silent for a moment before, "Damn... You really must've pissed off Fate this time..."

Danny was silent for a moment before he smirked and lightly punched Conner on the arm. " _No shit, Sherlock._ "

Conner punched him back saying, "Language."

The other raised an eyebrow at his remark while smirking. " _Don't be a hypocrite, Steve_."

"I'll stop being a hypocrite as soon as you stop being a smart-ass _._ "

The two couldn't help but laugh a little at their antics, causing any tension present to become nonexistent.

And that's the exact scene that Megan walked in on as she came onto the rooftop.

"Nice to see you two are having a nice time," she commented.

The two turned around with smiles on their faces. "Want to join us, M'gann? The view here is great," Danny offered.

M'gann smiled apologetically at him, "Thanks for the offer, but no thanks. I actually came up here to tell you that dinner is almost done. Also, Nightwing said that after we all eat, it'd probably be best if you show us around town, just so we can get a little familiar with it."

Danny continued to smile as he and Conner stood up and walked over to her. "Yeah sure. It might actually be a little fun too," the raven-haired teen said cheerfully.

      The Ghostly teen was the first to descend the stairs, but M'gann held out an arm to stop Conner from going. " _Is he alright?"_  she asked the other telepathically. Conner looked to where the teen had disappeared, " _I think he's trying to put on a brave face so we don't worry. So the best we can do for him right now is just remind him that he doesn't have to do this alone. He has a_ _ **real**_ _family now, in fact, I wouldn't object if Danny requests the Fentons and co. to go home or just stay out of the way."_

M'gann sighed, " _So in other words, he just wants to get this over with so we can all go home."_

" _Yeah, pretty much."_

Megan sighed aloud this time before finally descending the stairs with Conner right behind her.

 

**TIME SKIP (1 hour later; because I'm lazy right now)**

 

"So, Danny...what have you been up to recently?"

      Both Team and Fentons were seated in the kitchen and living room as they all ate their small, but filling dinner. There was few furniture since it only used to be Sam, Tucker, Jazz, and Danny. It consisted of two couches, one was a two-seat, the other a four, an oval glass/metal coffee table, four bar stools that usually sat underneath the bar top counter, and lastly two extra chairs that were always kept in the closet if the ex-trio ever had any visitors.

Artemis and Impulse both sat on the two-seat couch with Kid Flash sitting on the arm of it, while Aqualad, Miss Martain, Beast Boy, and Zatanna sat on the four-seat. Nightwing, Robin, Superboy, and Danny had seated themselves on the bar stools, and lastly, the Fentons had chosen to stand, while Sam and Tucker sat on the two extra chairs.

Everyone had been mostly silent throughout the entire time they were eating, but of course, Tucker couldn't let them have that privilege.

When Tucker had disturbed the silence, Danny was in the process of staring at nothing in particular, and he continued to do so as he deadpanned his answer.

      "Oh you know, escaped from hell, was captured by maniacs, had to rescue friends from the maniacs, then rescued damsels from a psychotic clown, ended up getting rescued  _from_  the psychotic clown, stopped three invasions, one from ghosts, the other two by morons having hissy-fits, got captured by idiots-excuse me- the _government_ , stopped multiple prison break-outs caused by more idiots and their friends the morons, and last but not least, I had to put up with super-powered adults that decided to have tantrums. So you know... the usual."

      By the end of Danny's  _enthusiastic_  recollection of everything that's happened, Robin, Impulse, and Beast Boy were left rolling with laughter, Artemis and Miss Martain were trying everything to  _not_  to giggle, Aqualad, Nightwing, Zatanna, and Superboy were smiling, and lastly, Kid Flash was holding his stomach in pain from laughing so hard.

Meanwhile, Sam, Tucker, and the Fentons all shared the same reactions, expressions of horror, disbelief, and anger.

"Why are you all laughing at this?! And  _you_! Why would you even say things like that?!" Maddie exclaimed with a disapproving glare.

Danny remained emotionless as he looked into his biological mother's eyes. "What do you mean?" he asked innocently.

"Why would you lie like that?!"

Danny remained staring into her furious eyes as he answered with a bored tone, "Those weren't lies, those were the truth. Just ask anyone around the room."

Maddie and Jack looked around the room and saw all the serious, but amused, expressions of the young team. Maddie looked as though she was going to try to argue again, but Danny stopped her by standing and holding his hand up for silence.

"I believe it's getting late and that we're all tired here. So as both member of the Young Justice League, and a former citizen/guardian of this city, I'm going to have to ask you and your company to leave, Mr. and Mrs. Fenton."

The two audiences were shocked, but for different reasons. The Fentons, Sam, and Tucker were shocked because Danny was kicking them out of  _their_  base. While the Team was shocked that he was acting so calmly and was using an authoritative tone towards the people he once called family.

"You don't have the right to kick us out of here!" Sam exclaimed.

Danny turned to the goth. "Actually I do. This warehouse was given to me by the Axion Labs by Director Gray himself. He gave it to me for the sole purpose of having a safe and secret research facility as well as using it as a safe house. When given to me, it was put under the name of Phantom and had been paid in full. Therefore, I have the right to remove you from my property. If you don't believe me, I have all the papers, dated and signed."

Nightwing and a few others looked impressed by Phantom's thinking ahead, while other Team members were just in awe. And of course, the Fentons and co were outraged.

"You can't do this to us! We-" Tucker tried to say.

"You are civilians and  _as such_ , we are now responsible for your safety. Also,  _because_  you are civilians, you do not have access to the knowledge of our real identities. The only reason you are even  _seeing_  us is that you already know my identity and you had caught us off guard. Which  _will not be happening again_. Is this understood?"

The Halfa flashed his deadly toxic green at the Fentons and they reluctantly agreed, with flickers of surprise coming from Sam and Tucker.

Danny took another calming breath before continuing, "Good. Now, for the time that we are remaining here, if we are seen in public, you are to NOT call me be either of my identities. I will be somewhat in disguise for the majority of the time we're here and it is crucial to both the mission and the Team's safety, that I am not compromised."

Everyone nodded in agreement, some more hesitant than others.

"But wait." Danny turned to Artemis. "What are we supposed to call you then?"

Danny motioned towards Nightwing who in turn answered the question, "Aqualad, Phantom, and I have been discussing this for a while now. We have decided that we will be using the Mind Link as an advantage. We'll be using it the majority of the time we're investigating and when we're in public. We'll still call Danny, 'Phantom', but we have to be careful, when and  _where_  we say his name."

Artemis nodded to show that she understood before Nightwing turned to the Fentons who were still present in the room.

He sighed before acknowledging them, "Mr. and Mrs. Fenton, I'll make you a deal, if it makes you feel more comfortable. You can be here from the hours of 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. That way, you can be here during the day, but still, allow us to have our privacy at night."

Sam and Tucker turned to look at Mr. and Mrs. Fenton, who in turn looked to them, all seeming to have come to a silent agreement. "It's a deal," Jack said shaking Nightwing's hand.

Nightwing smiled back at them and with that, the Fentons and Danny's ex-friends left the warehouse.

The Team all sighed in relief as the other occupants left the room.

"Well that was interesting," Wally said as he rubbed the back of his head.

"I can definitely agree to that," Artemis added.

"Indeed," Aqualad agreed.

"So Danny?"

Said person looked to Beast Boy. "What next?"

"Next? Next, we rest for a little bit before heading out. It's time to show you guys around the most haunted city in the World."

 

**TIME SKIP (9:30 P.M.)**

      The city of Amity Park had quieted down. Both people and animals alike were at home asleep. The wind was nothing more than a gentle breeze that carried the sound of singing crickets. The city lights were bright, but not harsh as if they were stars. The moon shined brightly in the sky, offering more than enough light for midnight travelers.

Jumping rooftop to rooftop, was the young team of heroes, stopping every once and awhile to admire or observe a certain building or street. Leading the team through the city, Phantom led them to the fountain within the park in order to rest.

The park was peaceful and beautiful under the moon's rays of silver light. The gray sidewalks were lit up brightly, the trees and bushes shined, the red and white flowers around the fountain practically glowed, and the water itself turned silver and blue from the moon's comforting light.

      Miss Martian's eyes went wide at the wondrous and enchanting sight, and Beast Boy, Impulse, and Artemis couldn't help but do the same. Robin and Nightwing were trying to pick out every hidden detail, such as the scars on the trees or sidewalks that looked suspiciously like there were previous battles held here. Lastly, Aqualad, Zatanna, Kid Flash, and Conner were observing their surroundings with caution, yet they still admired the scene itself all the same.

"Wow, this place is amazing!" Beast Boy shouted out loud.

Miss Martian immediately put up the Mind Link and lightly scolded Beast Boy for shouting.

" _Heh, heh... sorry."_

_"It's alright, Gar, no is really around this place at this time of night. Save the few midnight joggers every once in awhile, but that's often."_ Phantom reassured.

" _What is this place anyways, Danny?"_  Zatanna asked in awe.

A gentle breeze glided through the peaceful park, rustling the white and red shining leaves, and producing a sweet aroma that smelled of freshly picked lavender.

Phantom closed his eyes as the soft wind lightly ruffled his hair and clothes. With a sad smile and without turning around, he said aloud, " _ **Hey, Jazz..."**_

Some of the teen's eyes went wide in shock, while others had looks of suspicion with narrowed eyes or tightened jaws.

      They watched as a red-haired teen, maybe even a new adult, stepped out of the woods. She was wearing a long-sleeved black shirt, a light blue skirt with black leggings underneath, and black flats. The girl herself was skinny, but naturally so. Meanwhile, her eyes showed differently, her teal blue eyes were full of both relief and sorrow, both emotions struggling for dominance. However, it didn't matter, for the tears already came.

"D-Danny?"

Phantom smiled at her sadly and nodded his head, but before he could say anything else, Jazz tackled him into a hug.

"I was so worried about you! I came back to the house when I heard you were missing, only to come home to Mom worrying and Dad was furious. I had asked them what had happened, but they refused to say anything! It wasn't until I went to throw something away did I find your note in the trash, and I-"

Danny felt his entire body tense up as his older sister began to sob into his soldier, her face twisted in guilt and looked to be in physical pain.

"-I felt like it was my fault that you were gone! I should've been here to protect you! I should've been here to stop Mom and Dad from hurting you! I should've-!"

" _ **Jazz, stop."**_

Jazz jerked back in surprise and her tearful eyes met her brother's fiery determined ones. "But I-"

" _ **You didn't do anything, Jazz. It wasn't your fault, nor was it Mom or Dad's.**_ **I** _ **chose to leave. ME. It was my choice and mine alone. Yes, Mom and Dad may have been the reason I was leaving... but it was still my decision. So wipe those tears away you spazz."**_

Jazz chuckled at her brother's old taunting and wiped her eyes with the back of her sleeve. She sniffled before looking up at her inch-shorter-than-her brother, and seeing the new fire in his eyes, she couldn't help but smile.

Danny smiled back at her and pulled her into a hug, " _ **There's that smile..."**_

Jazz sighed in relief and smiled into her brother's shoulder, " _ **I love you, Danny."**_

"... _ **I love you too, Jazz."**_

The two didn't know how long they remained in each other's embrace, but they weren't broken up until someone cleared their throat.

Nightwing stepped forwards with an apologetic look on his face. "Sorry to have to break up this happy moment, but we need to keep moving if we want to have the whole city scouted out by tonight."

Phantom looked down with a sad smile on his face, while Jazz's eyes widened in surprise.

"Who are you?" She looked towards her brother. "Are these the people Dani-?"

" _ **Yes. And unfortunately, Nightwing is right. We have to keep moving. Go ahead and head to the warehouse, we'll meet you there in a little bit,"**_ Phantom said with a smile.

Jazz nodded her head and gave him one more hug before turning around and jogging off into the shadows.

' _Phantom? You ready to keep going?'_  Miss Martian asked.

Said person took a calming breath while running a hand through his hair. ' _Yeah. Let's keep moving before the ghosts show up.'_

The Team all stood up and followed Danny back into the shadows of the city.

It wasn't until they were well away from the park did anyone speak again. Unfortunately, it had to be Impulse...  _"Your place is so crash! Small, but peaceful-"_

At that exact moment, every single Team member wanted to do nothing more than slap Impulse upside the head. For at that exact moment, a woman's screams could be heard in the distance.

While Robin, Beast Boy, Nightwing, Artemis, and Superboy turned to glare at Impulse, Phantom trained his ears to the source of the scream.

" _Why on Earth would you even THINK about saying that?!"_  Robin exclaimed.

" _Yeah, man! You know our luck is bad enough, why'd you have to go and say that!"_  Beast Boy added.

" _Well I thought that since we were in a different dimension that-"_

_"As much as we would want to hear your excuses right now, there's a woman being jumped about two blocks from us, so if you're done-!"_

With that being said Phantom dashed off into the night, leaving some of the teenagers to blink in surprise and/or confusion, while the rest rushed to catch up to the white-haired teen.

Impulse and the others scolding him stood up straight and quickly followed the others into the black night.


End file.
